Capitol State Forest - Porter Falls — Saturday, Mar. 19, 2016

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

Hike #12 of our 52 Hike Challenge – Porter Falls Trail, Capitol State Forest Saturday, March 19, 2016. It has been dry for a few days now and we just couldn’t wait to get outside on Saturday. We drove out to Capitol State Forest to find Porter Falls. It wasn’t easy with the rock slide that reduced the road to one lane, the primitive State Forest roads, more rock slides and all the unmarked logging roads to confuse us along our way. We finally found the primitive camp ground area right on the bank of Porter Creek and the Porter Falls trailhead across the road marked by a single rusty metal post leaning against a tree. We started our climb going up several switch-back turns until the trail leveled out about midway up the hillside. From the trail, it was straight down to Porter Creek below and straight up to the hill top. Along the trail we encountered several obstacles but we made it under logs and over crude bridges. He found some interesting things like a Yin & Yang tree. The trail lead us back down to creek level and then up again until we came to West Fork Porter Creek flowing down from the other side. The trail followed the West Fork until it met up with Porter Creek. At the intersection of the two were the falls. Beautiful and powerful. Michael shot some video and I took some photos. After enjoying the scenery, a handful of walnuts, an apple and some water, we headed back up the same trail we came in on. It was a wonderful day spent in the magnificent beauty of the forest.