I have been to Cedar Falls many times; however, never in the winter. Two things piqued my interest in such a trip. First, it had been and was cold. There had been fresh snow several days ago (we got a short inch in Mazama). Second, the series of mild, atmospheric rivers had dumped a lot of rain in the Cascades including within the Methow Watershed (there were some estimates near and over 5 inches of rain. There were floods and wash-outs). Stream flow remains uncommonly high, even well into February. Perhaps a hike to Cedar Falls would result in the convergence of a lot of water and a lot of ice.
My son arrived at 9:30 at the place where my wife and I are staying. We headed several miles from Mazama up SR 20 to the closed USFS road to the snow-free seasons' trailhead. We parked well off SR 20 (winter closure begins at the Silver Star Gate and goes to the gate just before the parking area for Ross Dam), put on our micro-spikes (tied our snowshoes to our packs), shouldered our packs and headed up the snow covered road. There was a mostly well-packed snow trail (estimated depth to the road bed was 2+ feet with 2 to 3 inches of new snow). We followed the very fresh up and down boot and paw prints of an early morning hiker and their dog. In a very short mile, we reached the parking lot and trailhead and continued following the fresh tracks for another 0.1 miles until they stopped at an excellent view point where Goat Peak and lookout could be seen as well as some of completely white peaks north of Goat Peak.
We continued following what seemed to be an obvious snowshoe trail. This was easy to follow; however, there was an abundance of down wood across the trail, some well covered, but the pole or boot holes on either side of such down wood reminded us the ground was feet below. Often to get around these obstacles, interesting and some steep, snowshoe side trails led up in some cases and down in others, always returning the well-covered summer trail (see Figure 1). New snow depth increased a couple of inches. At times, there seemed to be more time occupied by these extensive diversions than with the 'proper' trail itself. After about two miles (from the car), we reached a very large, surviving ponderosa pine with a fire scar from some fire multiple decades ago as well as lots of black, charred bark from the 2021 Cedar Creek Fire. If you look at the bottom 20 feet of the stem, you would say 'dead.' Look-up, there is a very vigorous, green crown. It earned its keep and survival. Soon after, the trail begins rising, often crossing steep, open, totally snow covered slopes and with NO further obstacles, reaches the falls (Figures 2 and 3). Here, the new snow depth was between 6 and 8 inches. It was even better than I had expected or hoped for. Took a bunch of pictures and headed back down the trail.
Total distance was 5.45 miles, elevation gained was 1112 feet (lots of ups and downs). It was a lot of work -- British climbers have a great term for how I felt back in Mazama - 'shattered.'
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