Merrill Lake Conservation Area - Kalama River Falls — Sunday, Apr. 23, 2023

We hiked to Kalama River Falls beginning at the intersection of NF 81 and FR 7500.  The first 1.5 miles was on gravel road with intermittent snow.  The snow was melting quickly and will likely be gone within a week. At 1.5 miles we turned onto the short singletrack trail to the falls.  The falls were raging and beautiful as always.  We followed the trail downstream, crossing a side creek on a huge old growth log and scrambled up the far side using an established rope and well-placed roots. Once at the top another fallen giant obscured the path so a little bushwacking was in order to return to the road.  We returned to our truck via the same road we hiked in on.  Overall, a very quiet day out and we saw no other hikers.  Total mileage was 4.6 miles and ~365 EG. As we drove out on NF81 we stopped at one of the several dispersed camp spots and picked up trash left by some campers - a belated Earth Day activity.