Feather Falls Hike

Breakfast was leftovers from the past few days. Lou and I planned on a hike to Feather Falls, the sixth tallest water fall in the US. Dawn planned on a relaxing day in camp. Lou and I started our trip with a visit to a local hardware store we couldn't pass by. Never can! Good thing too. We found something we've been looking for, 36" wide stick on drywall tape. It's used to fix cracked walls and we have some. Just think of this as a component of 36 inch wide putty. We then headed on up the road East 17 miles to the trail head.


The trail, one way, to the water falls is either about 4 miles or about 5 miles depending on wheather you take the lower trail or the upper trail. We intended to take both, one at a time, total hike about 9 miles. Now the decision here is important. Which will be the easiest return. By reading the signs here at the trailhead and having read about the trail on the Internet we knew we should take the lower trail to the falls and the upper trail back because the lower trail is a strenuous trail and the upper trail is moderate. The lower trail goes down steeply for 3/4 of the route then up steeply the rest of the way. The upper trail is a gradual slope back to the top on the return. We noticed that most of the hikers hadn't read about the trail, not even the sign at the beginning of the trail. Most of the people were returning via the strenuous lower trail. It looks easier for the return when you start because you're headed down hill. Anyway above left I'm standing at the decision point, the wye in the trail. Above right is a view of this areas equivalent to half dome in Yosemite, Bald Rock Dome.


The hike travels along the side of the hill adjacent to the Feather river for part of the way to the falls. The forest here is one of the nicest we've been in. A nice variety of trees, not too dense, with nice trails. Above right is a view through the trees.


Here is the reason for the hike, Feather Falls. Feather Falls is actually not on the Feather River but is a fall of the Fall River. Fall river joins the Middle Fork of the Feather River a short distance beyond the falls. A nice looking water fall but not a clear drop, somewhat of a cascade. There is an excellent view point in front of the falls and you can hike to the top of the falls as well but we didn't, just the view point this time. The trip to the top would just add about a 1/4 mile of fairly level trail to the trip. I'm sorry my camera can't get the whole falls in one shot. I did take a vertical panorama shot of it and will try to stitch it together sometime later.


We saw more wild flowers on this hike than we've ever seen before. Not only abundant but there were so many types, many we've never seen before. I'll try to add some names to some of these as well. I'm sorry some of these pictures didn't turn out clear either but I included them because they are different and to show how many types there were.


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