Canyon Loop, Golden Ears Prov Park, Sept 8th 2024
Craig and Michele write:-
Arriving at the West Canyon Parking Lot at 0800, there was some trepidation in seeing the large amount of cars parked along the roadside, as it looked like some extra distance may be needed to be added to the hike. However, there were several spots in the main car park. The overall number of cars led us to believe that the backcountry camping spots would have been quite busy. A good one to file away; good weather + September weekend = a busy Alder Flats and beyond.
As the five of us headed up the West Canyon trail we were pleasantly surprised to find very few other hikers on the trail. While the trail trended upwards, it had relatively few steep sections, and the weather was a perfect hiking temperature of not too hot, not too cold. We reached the turnoff to Hiker's Beach, a potential lunch spot, at about 1030 and decided to keep on the West Canyon trail, as no one was hungry enough to stop. Not that long after we crossed Gold Creek and joined the East Canyon trail.
At this point the East Canyon trail was quite wide and road-like, so we took the first opportunity we had to take a "relatively" unmarked trail that would connect us with the Lower Canyon trail. I say "relatively" unmarked as there was a trail showing on the Gaia app and a large arrow painted on a rock. However, it didn't take us too long to find ourselves bushwhacking and obviously off the trail, so a bit of backtracking was required to where we had left the East Canyon trail, where we managed to find the trail we wanted.
This ended up being a very nice trail, complete with a spicy section along a cliff face, which led us down to the Lower Falls viewpoint. It was definitely lunch time now and we found a particularly pleasant spot by the creek, complete with a flat surface to sit on, a rock to lean back on, the choice between a sun or shade, and a lovely pool of crystal clear water to admire.
Reaching the post-lunch decision point of "curl up and have a good nap" vs "get walking again " we headed off down the Lower Falls trail, now reasonably busy with other hikers. At the Gold Creek parking lot we were happy to see everyone else head down the North Beach Trail, while we crossed the road bridge and onto the Menzies Trail. We had the trail all to ourselves as it wound through a lovely mossy forest, before joining the West Canyon trail which took us back to our starting point.
Total time: 4.5 hours.
Total distance: 10.4 km
Total enjoyment: high
