The trailhead is reached by taking a long, windy, gravel road riddled with potholes up to the trailhead. There are some significant drops off of the edge of the road so make sure you STAY ON IT! If you're really worried, you can always park lower and hike the road in and add a few miles onto the trip. We decided Uggy could brave the rough conditions and so she did and we made it in and out in one piece. Hiking was good too (though it's another that's on my "Return" list, actually, I should make a tag for that...)
Read on!
The road... it looks good right now...
We were not alone!
Not much signage...
There was a check in book that was utterly soaked in water and impossible to write on, but I think it's more for those who are planning on camping in the wilderness.
The trail is an old railroad grade so it remains decently level for the whole thing with some mild up and down. Nice and wide too. Eric and I were able to walk side by side, which is sometimes rare on these hikes.
The hillside was beginning to washout. I'd recommend being careful and making sure you have plenty of structural support before stepping anywhere.
We could briefly see mountains through the mist and cloud cover. Then more clouds moved in and it began to rain... (SPOILERS!)
People camping!
Boulder River down below. The trail eventually reaches river level, but it's more that the river comes up to the trail, rather than the trail going down to the river. We never actually made it that far.... (SPOILERS!)
The river was that cool glacier green/gray color that we saw on our first hike.
Eric looks up at a neat cliff face.
There are two 'waterfalls' on this trail. They are not nearly so impressive when the last hike you do is Bridal Veils... They are quite tall however, and it is neat to see how they feed the river. Basically, there are two streams that meet the river perpendicularly. Only instead of gently grading down to river level each stream has over 100ft of rock face to fall down. Kinda neat.
Where the streams meet the river.
We oo'd and aaah'd over the waterfall and moved on, afterall, we had more hike to accomplish. Until we came to this:
It was a blowdown of massive proportions. We tried to scramble over it, but I was not comfortable given the slope and weather. Plus, we had heard from other hikers that the wind gusts were bad enough that the blowdowns were happening IN FRONT of them. So... rather than risk getting smooshed by a tree, we decided that the blowdown was a suitable obstacle and admitted defeat and turned around. Two guys did continue on however, they were more willing to get dirty, muddy, and had some better equipment. Alas, maybe another time. I was still smiling!
Neat bridge
So in the absence of a longer hike, we decided to scramble down the slope to river level. There are numerous small trails that can accomplish this. It is steep, so make sure you're willing to take your time, but it can be done.
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