Two weeks ago, Bill and I planned a carpool shuttle and hiked Fall Creek trail. We met at Hidden Springs campground. After a short drive, we started at the white gate. It was a late start, around 8:30 am but the weather was good. It was overcast with some cool cloud formations above us. It turned out to be a nice day.
In my opinion, this is the best way to hike this long 5 mile trail. I've only hiked a portion of this trail so it was nice to do the entire trek. The route, has its ups and downs but the scenery is gorgeous. I loved the views. We found a waterfall with a small trickle of water. Most of the trail was well maintained.
As we got closer to the creek the trail gets a little tricky but we found some faded pink ribbons. After we pushed through and bush-wacked a bit, we discovered what looked like a private beach. A beautiful oasis with pools, cascades and huge colorful boulders. We took a break here and of course, I did some rock scrambling and soaked in the views of fall colors surrounding me.
While I climbed the rocks, Bill was so kind to do some trimming.
We then continued on road 3N27. From this point on the trail was nice again and the views really opened up to some more fall colors and amazing scenery. Once we reached the fork in the road we took a detour and Bill led me to the abandoned campground where we found a picnic table.
This area really needs trimming but you can follow a use path.
After re-tracing our steps we continued on the road. We had nice views of nearby San Gabes like Mt. Wilson, Strawberry, etc.
For most of the day, we were the only hikers on the trail until we were approached by two others that started from the opposite end. After exiting the trail we walked a short distance back to Hidden Springs.
Overall, the trail is in great shape. Very secluded and beautiful. There are now signs for the Fall Creek Trail that were not there last time I hiked this trail which was really nice to see.