Discovering Cedar Flats- Mom and Daughter Backpacking

Mom: We hiked 4 miles from the trailhead and found a great spacious campsite near Opal Pool. "Camp sweet Camp" for the night. We slept so soundly!

Amy: All dressed up and ready to explore.

Mom: In the morning, all I had to say was "dried mango" and Amy crawled out of her sleeping bag at the surprisingly early hour of 7:15am.

Amy: A very nice waterfall.

Mom: We headed across the bridge to explore the trail heading into Cedar Flats.

Amy: A nice waterfall on the way to Cedar Flats.

Mom: The trail became more brushy and secluded. The creek was even more beautiful!

Amy: The really tall Cedar trees.

Mom: I loved how the morning light was hitting the forest. I greatly enjoyed these 500-1000 year old trees.

Amy: A nice stream.

Mom: We took some time to sit by the water and soak in the view.

Amy: The trees are very tall.

Mom: Beautiful Cedar Flats!

Amy: We followed 2 logs.

Mom: The long downed trees and tall, tall canopy above.

Amy: The 2nd tree we crossed.

Mom: This little waterfall is near a really nice campsite. We will keep this in mind for the future.

Amy: A nice little pond.

Amy: Welcome to Jawbone Flats.

Mom: All the old mining equipment in Jawbone Flats.

Amy: Mining carts.

Mom: An old mineshaft to enjoy. We clicked down the miles to make 7 for the day. We went home refreshed and ready to reunite with family!

Opal Pool and Natural Waterslide!- Mom and Daughter Backpacking

Mom: Amy made me soooo happy! She agreed to go backpacking. We've gotten our weight down a bit- me about 35 lbs and her with 10 lbs. I squeezed this trip between two overnight work shifts and seriously needed some sky time. We set off to our all time favorite summer hike: Opal Creek!

Amy: This hike is one of our all time favorites.

Mom: We hit the trail at 4pm- the perfect time because everyone was going home. The wilderness was our playground!

Amy: This cabin finally collapsed.SOB SNIFF sorry.

Mom: The creek was so beautiful in the early evening light and we soaked our dinner while playing in the natural waterslide.

Amy: I LOVE💓💗♡🎔♡♡❤💕💕 The natural waterslide.

Mom: I have a really good swimmer now and she loves the natural waterslide. We both took a few turns and had it all to ourselves.

Mom: She stayed in the cold water a lot longer than I did, though I went down the slide a few times.

Amy: This is proof.

Mom: Clear cold water and Amy after a jump in.

Amy: Cold but fun.

Mom: Cold, wet, and happy!

Amy: The waterslide in all it's glory.

Mom: Next stop was to set up camp and then to Opal Pool for a post hike cold evening swim.

Amy: Opal pool is SO COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom: We jump off the lowest rocks and enjoy the shockingly cold water. Again we had the place to ourselves.

Amy: Shockingly cold is right.

Mom: I took lots of pictures to warm up and drip dry. The look of shock and shivering from the cold.

Amy: Again, proof.

Mom: On Sunday we came again after breaking down camp- this time watching cliff jumpers and other swimmers. See you next year Opal Pool!

Amy: It was hard to say goodbye to this fun, fun pool. Did I mention it was cold?

Much Needed Waterfall and Old Growth Refreshment

After a few week hiking hiatus, we headed out to the Henline Falls Trailhead in the Opal Creek Wilderness in October 2014.  We hike rain or shine and sometimes the rainy hikes are the most memorable.

Analise was doing a lot of walking and this is a great trail for her, not super long and lots of wonderful forest ending with a beautiful waterfall.

The mist seemed magical and the forest enchanted.

We found lots of mud puddles as we hiked up the wide trail.

Analise was determined as ever and happy to be wearing her puddle stomping boots.

I saw a tiny bit of blue sky and loved the way the light was shining through on this cool fall day.

The moss is lovely in this old growth gem of a forest.

I drew the line at swimming but Analise got as close to the water as possible.

We took many breaks for climbing rocks.

I continued to enjoy the refreshing, mossy forest.

We continued through the rain to the powerful henline falls.

We spent some time gazing up at it and enjoying the spray less than we would on a hot day but still quite a bit.

There is a cave near the waterfall that we checked out the mouth of.

We took a silly selfie.

Back to the lush green forest toward the trailhead.

We found a cliff with some drips to shower us along the way.

It was a lovely, refreshing fall day in the woods- a place we will most definitely return to.