I woke up this morning to discover a break in the weather from yesterday's massive deluge. I decided it was a good opportunity to check out the falls and see how it looks with all that rainwater draining off. I didn't get to the trailhead until 10:30am though, and I carefully squeezed into the last spot available in the main parking area. Hiking up the road/trail I didn't encounter many people, but runoff was everywhere and the trail was pretty wet. Also the stream you have to cross twice in the beginning was pretty high. By carefully balancing myself on the rocks with a set of hiking poles I managed to keep my feet (mostly) dry, although I did wish I had brought my gaiters.
Once I reached the turnoff to the falls I started to encounter long lines of people coming down, and had to step aside and wait several times. All the little streams were flowing across the trail so I had to keep dancing on top of rocks all the way to the falls. Naturally of course the stairs were water-logged. Predictably the falls itself was roaring, and due to the spray it was hard to take pictures without getting the camera lens wet. I didn't dare try to jump across the water at the rock slab as it was too high and moving too fast.
I then descended and checked out the two lower falls along the trail, which were also flowing quite heavily. On the way back down I encountered another stream of the human kind, with lots of people heading up. I also noticed many salmonberries were out and nearly ripe, with many hikers stopping to help themselves to the bounty.
I returned to my vehicle around 1pm, and saw that the overflow area was partially full. BTW the toilets were also nearly full... gross! Just as I got back onto Hwy 2 a rain squall rolled in, so I timed it pretty good.
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