12 Mar Pacific Crest Trail Waterfall
This is the second time we have done this hike in the past two months. A group of friends went out on January 1st, it was chilly and snowing then! Everything was quiet, glowing, and magical on the first day of the year. We sadly had some trouble following directions to the trailhead and thus started the hike later then planned. We eventually had to turn around before we finished the hike since we were loosing light. I tried to take a picture in the same spot to show the different atmospheres of both hikes.
What I realized this second time around is that there really is no ‘finishing this hike’ since you are on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was very liberating to know that if we wanted to, we truly could keep walking all the way to Mexico! Maybe someday. . .
We took this hike on an uncharacteristically nice day for February, which was special since it was Kara’s (my) birthday! The weather is never nice for my birthday, so I was very thankful to be able to spend the whole day outside in the wilderness. (I also am completely obsessed with this vintage ‘observation club’ shirt I found at Palace, if anyone knows more about it, please tell me.)
It was just going to be Andy and I on the hike, but the night before we ran into our friends Trevor and Cara who just moved back to town and invited them along. One of my favorite things to do is go on hikes with different people. They notice different things than you, and I am fascinated by the wildly different perspectives we each experienced around us.
The natural scenery on this trail is incredibly diverse. It starts with a somewhat significant elevation gain, leveling off to wind through all sorts of old growth. Then you come to huge opening on the sides of the mountain covered in velvety moss-covered rocks. Next are light-filled rolling hills also blanketed in moss that feels like The Shire, and suddenly you find yourself following a flat trail filled with straight-spine’d tree’s who’s arms don’t start growing until 30′ up. You cross bridges and the trail flirts with the river along the way, falling to and fro from it’s bank.
It took us a while to get to the waterfalls because I kept on stopping to take pictures of things like the tiny beautiful moss-bits along the way.
When we eventually got to the waterfalls, they were a little underwhelming to be honest. The biggest part of the falls was deep in a mountain crevice and we weren’t up for bushwhacking our way up there. What we were in the mood for was a pic-nic. 😉
We strung up some of our hammocks and had a delicious lunch, paired with a baby bottle of celebratory birthday champagne, of course.
And back we went! It was a birthday full of curiosity, playfulness, and wonder.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau
Photos taken by Kara Jean
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