Franklin Falls, Franklin Falls - Winter — Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020

Franklin falls was worth the wait! I’ve had this snowy hike on my list for awhile (and judging by the amount of people on the trail I wasn’t the only one). We parked before the closed road which is immediately off the 1-90 exit. We were in a 2004 Camry and did just fine. We wore yaktrax/spikes for the whole hike and although it was probably mostly doable without, they were great. The road is wide enough for social distancing and additionally about 60% wore masks. There’s a cute bunny hill about a half mile in where families were sledding. The snow gets progressively deeper until the trail - we took the Denny creek trail to Franklin falls (turn left at the fork with signs) vs the upper trailhead following old trip report guidance. The actual trail to the falls is narrower but still easy to follow and hard packed snow. We went all the way down to the falls and it was pretty misty and icy. The last section is dicey and I wouldn’t recommend without spikes, very easy to slip. Please wear some decent hiking shoes and bring poles, saw lots of people in sneakers and that looked pretty miserable as the snow got deeper. Overall an amazing and beautiful winter wonderland hike!