We had a grand adventure into this beautiful rainforest with 2 friends and my 9yo. We set out under the rainy sky and into a very very humid and sticky forest. Like it felt like a sauna at times! Bugs were not too terribly bad, but definitely around and much worse in lush green sections of the trail. As others have said before this post, while the destination valley itself is beautiful, it is the journey there along the river that is truly enchanting. The old growth, and carpet of green sprawling the stunning river valley, was absolutely breathtaking at times. Pictures just can’t capture how magical this trail is.
We did 4 days and 3 nights at O’Neil, Enchanted Valley, then Pyrites Creek.
Things to note: 1. Aggressive Hornets nest was present in ground under trail between main trail and O’Niel campground Privy. We heard many people yelling/getting stung both times we were near that space, so trek lightly and quickly.
2. We stayed at O’Niel the last night, right on the point out by the water. It awesome, and pretty much all to ourselves! We expected the trek out on Saturday to be long for our youngest adventurer, and it lived up to that. All of our tracking devices said 10.4 miles on they last day. Just keep that in mind if you’re camping/ hiking with young ones. Mine was really feeling his tired legs and body after that last push up from pony bridge to the parking area. It took much longer than expected, and was the hardest part of the trip for our kiddo.
All in all, amazing scenery, many beautiful bridge crossings over now dry creeks, and wonderful sense of quiet and wild. Enjoy.
