Birthday Waterfall Hunt

June 17 was my birthday and I decided to go on a little adventure.

I headed out to the Gorge to search for some hidden waterfalls that don’t have trails to them. The first has a lot of popularity in the kayaking community as a good one to go over. To hike to it you pull off the side of a road and basically follow a very faint path straight down a very steep hill several hundred feet.

But when you find the falls, it is all worth it.

The color of the water is truly amazing.

It was fun to walk around and take in the different views.

Catherine Creek was not much father up the highway, so I went to find the small waterfall there. We came here a few weeks ago, but did not have time to see the little waterfall. This time it was much dryer and the flowers had changed.

Catherine Creek Falls

My last stop was to find the elusive Carson Creek Falls. There is one vague description of where it is online, but there is very little evidence that anyone else has been there. With not even a faint path I just headed down into the creek valley. Reaching the creek I basically fought my way up stream.

But Carson Creek Falls was awesome.

Mosses and ferns covered everything. The greenery was all encompassing.

Back home we went out for a delicious BBQ dinner, and my family came over to share the lemon roulade cake with huckleberry cream filling. Thank you Ruth.

Day 5: Life in Mosses

A successful campout. Our tent kept the rain out and it was dry in the morning. Magnus had fun running around outside and playing in the tent.

We took a quick look at the lake, witch is actually pretty big. And Gideon was mostly good.

On our way home we visited the Hoh Rain Forest, the one of the wettest place in the US, with 140 to 170 inches of rain each year. So the trees get very big and the mosses rule.

We did the short trail called the Hall of Mosses. It starts by going over this small stream filled with lots of greenery.

It is fun to see the strange, twisty shapes in the trees.

The Maple Grove is pretty cool.

A real Hall of Mosses:

The wetness is a haven for lots of different slugs and snails.

A large tree:

The rain forest is a great place to see nurse logs. These are trees the have usually fallen down and have become a fertile home for new trees. Eventually the old tree rots away leaving the roots of the new trees exposed and often in very gnarly configurations. It can lead to some pretty interesting trees.

And several can have big holes through them:

Magnus in front of the largest Spruce Tree:

Continuing home, we took one last look at the ocean. And stopped briefly in Humptulips, WA for a picture.

It was a great trip, but we are always happy to come home.