Otter Falls

For decades, I begin every summer hoping to get back to the mountains more. But somehow life intervenes and I'm lucky to go hiking once all summer. But this year, either through more effort or more amenable circumstances, I've already headed out several times. Today (yesterday, technically) I drove to North Bend, on up the Middle Fork Valley, and parked at the Taylor River trailhead. The hike into Otter Fall is a little over four miles of easy trail.

I think the last time I drove up this way, the Taylor River road was still open (mid-1980s?) and I drove along what is now trail. Otter Falls is a spectacular high water slide -- a snow-fed stream cascading down many hundreds of feet of granite slab.

The early morning start paid off again. I saw almost no one on the way up and had perfect blue skies. By the time I left the falls, high clouds had rolled in (not a threat, just makes for poorer photos) and the crowds were arriving. I must have passed fifty people on the way out. I was home by early afternoon.

It might have been much later had my car been 4 inches wider. I was barely able to squeeze out between two cars that had parked in such a way as to trap the dozen or so cars nearest the gate. You wonder what these jerks were thinking - then you realize they weren't. I called the Ranger's office once I was back in cell phone range and they said they'd send someone up.