Parking lot at Cedar Falls Trailhead was unusually busy today. It was great to see so many people and pets of all ages and abilities on the trails this sunny Earth Day!
The density of hikers thins on the Iron Horse Trail at the Cedar Butte trail turn off point. From here on it is pretty much a solitary long or short walk/bike/run on the trail perfect if that is what one is looking for. I chose Boetzke Creek Waterfalls as my point.
There are 2 easy ways to get to Boetzke Creek. One starting at the Cedar Falls TH (roughly 3 miles each way) and the other starting at Homestead Valley TH which actually made the shorter route to this point (roughly 2.3 miles each way). I made a note of the Ollalie Trail turnoff leading to Mt. Washington trail.
Either route, the trail is flat, quiet and tree lined offering peek-a-boos of the mountains & swamp. Birdchirps all along. Indian Plum tree, Flowering Red Currant, Salmonberry in bloom. The Maple trees are just beginning to flower. I imagine this would make it a beautiful walk during Autumn.
The waterfalls can be seen right from the middle point on the trestle at Boetzke Creek. There is no marked route to get closer to the falls. Pictures here include a zoomed in version as well as the actual distance/view of the falls for scale. These are loud, tall, flowing well, and probably be classified as a "ribbon" in terms of geometrical classification of waterfalls.
This trail is being considered for a name change to create a single, meaningful name representing much history of this trail: https://www.wta.org/news/signpost/name-change-what-to-call-the-iron-horse-park-john-wayne-pioneer-trail
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