Took a break from MRNP and headed out for some solitude at Goat Creek. While the directions were spot-on and the mileage about right, the gain of 400ft was way off. We clocked it at about 3,200 feet. Cathedral Falls is about 1 mile from the trailhead. At around 2 miles there is a fork in the trail. Left (straight? according to the WTA description) is the Tumwater trail. Goat Creek trail forks to the right and immediately starts climbing and doesn't stop until its endpoint at the junction with Goat Mountain Trail (217) and Vanson Peak Trail (217A) at an elevation of about 4,600 feet. On our trip we took the Tumwater trail for a short bit just to get a nice picture of the falls before heading back to the junction and up the Goat Creek trail. Cathedral Falls was just a trickle but was nice and cool. I guess we weren't thinking when we did this hike at probably the driest time of the year. Fortunately there were several other small falls along the hike. Wildflowers were out and some areas had some delicious berries as well. It was tempting to head over to Vanson peak at the end of the Goat Creek but by that time we were running low on energy and opted to try bagging that peak a different day. On our way in we saw two couples early on before Cathedral Falls and then not a soul until we passed a mountain biker on our way down from the junction with the Goat Mountain trail. Trail was in pretty good condition although there 5-6 blowdowns to cross or go around about 3 miles from the junction with the Tumwater trail. Even had a few peek-a-boo views of Rainier and Adams. A nice old growth forest hike that offered plenty of solitude and cool temperatures. We will sleep well tonight. GPS route posted below.
Type of Hike
Day hikeTrail Conditions
Trail in good conditionRoad
Road rough but passableBugs
Bugs were not too badSnow
Snow free
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