- Miles 410.2 to 422.0 (11.8 mi.)
- Total ascent: 2995′; descent 4409′
What a day of waterfalls it was!
Guilty as I feel saying it, Rachel and I actually skipped some of the most popular falls trails in order to make our miles. Also, guiltily, I slept for a full 12 hours last night, meaning our boots weren’t on the trail until after 9 a.m. today.
We began at Hardcore Cascades, falls I didn’t realize were so wonderfully named until after I posted about it being unnamed, and saw at least four others of varying sizes throughout the day. The most impressive was Laurel Falls, but we earned it: A stone staircase, numbering in the hundreds of stairs and evidently built by an all-women trail crew, destroyed our feet hours before our planned finish.
Although we quit early, by about 3.5 miles, we did get a stellar creekside campsite to ourselves. I had been salivating over nice sites all day, and Rachel and I decided that we didn’t mind getting a bit wet tomorrow (we did, in fact, get rained on, but we wouldn’t have made it in before the storm even if we’d followed our plan).
Where we stayed and spent most of the day was Dennis Cove, the sort of segment that seems like it must have been accidentally overlooked by the National Park Service. Whole mountainsides were stained white and pink by dogwood and azalea blossoms. Crystal blue water gleamed at the bottom of a canyon the trail roughly follows.
A railroad or other blasting-required road must have gone through Dennis Cove at some point, judging by the rockslides and exceptionally even trail (save for that stone staircase to Laurel Falls). Well-maintained switchbacks, built by a local hostel owner in his 60s, blunted the few real climbs we did.
Dennis Cove reminded us of St. Mary’s Glacier, Colorado, in its unusual blend of ruggedness, quietude, and accessibility. We discussed looking for such places, rather than defaulting to parks, for our future trips.
Tonight, as beautiful as our campsite is, is a short one. We started late, stood around to admire water features, and were woefully unaware of just how arduous the Laurel Falls hike would be.
It happens, and we’re in no rush. Not every plan is worth the pain, even if it might seem so at the time.
One reply on “4/23: Hardcore Cascades to Laurel Creek”
Magnificent photos!