I have a love/hate relationship with this trail. I hike it every few years and 2026 was the year I returned. I love how easy it is to get to (close to town, right off the road, no passes), and great views, but then it can be crowded or lot full or the trail over trodden.
I arrived at the trail around 930am and there were still a few spots in the lot to park which was surprsing since today is the last day to do the full loop. Despite all the cars, the trail did not feel crowded.
I always do the loop counter clockwise - I feel like I get the steep section out of the way and then can hike down towards the water (better views). The trail was predictablely muddy and I was glad to have poles for the ascent and decent. Even with poles I did slip a bit and took it slowly. There were only two trees that I had to climb over. It seemed that there had been a lot of recent trail maintenance done after the windstorms. Thank you to those who cared for this trail!
A few things to note about the trail:
After you go under hwy 14, there is a sign to avoid using the bridge as it has failed. You can see that one of the beams under the bridge has cracked and fallen down. yYou can either cross at your own risk or walk down to the creek and hop across.
On the lower portion of the trail, the bridge by the falls is gone. There is now a trail that goes up and behind the falls. It was kind of nice to walknunder the falls to cool off on this sunny January day! I wonder if they will repair the bridge or keep the detour as is?
The last mile of the loop is all road. sometimes you can see eagles or farm animals on the walk up which helps pass the road mile time. with the loop, my garmin clocked 7.37 miles.
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