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The road to Staircase is gravel past the Dry Creek bridge, so bumpy and dusty. But no potholes.
We arrived at 9:30am on Saturday morning, there were two cars ahead of us at the payment station, and parking was almost full. Luckily we were able to get ourselves a good spot to park.
There are two toilets at the clockwise trailhead before the bridge, they are clean but stinky (by nature!). Toilet paper and hand sani was well stocked.
We did the trail counter- clockwise. The trail is gravelly and rooty in some areas - of course my 4 year old tripped not even 5 minutes into the hole, but was feeling much better after a bandaid and a reminder to watch where his feet are going. There is a blow down not far in that the trail that has already been rerouted around. There is also a log bridge early on in the trail. It is narrow but sturdy and my 4-year-old and myself with the baby carrier on had no issues. The counter-clockwise route doesn't have any/many views of the river until you get to the bridge. The first good view of the river from the bridge was beautiful! The bridge is in great condition and feels incredibly safe.
From this point you can turn left to return back to the trailhead. This section of the trail has many beautiful views of the river and some cool/interesting trees. Definitely the more picturesque side of the trail.
At the end of the trail you cross a large concrete bridge into the parking area, which is where the toilets from earlier are located as well as the riverside picnic area. We returned to our car to grab our lunch and came back to eat and play underneath the bridge. There is a nice little shaded sandy spot under the bridge. The water was cold but not too cold for my kiddos to wade in. Many adults and older kids were swimming. The water is clear and the bottom is dirt and rock.
This was a nice little hike for my 4 year old (and 2 year old riding in the pack.) Between the trail and back and forth to the car and picnic area we logged 2.9 miles of mostly flat trail/very low grade trail.
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