Leon Turnbull Photography

Brian and I slept in our respective vehicles overnight at the Brokeoff trailhead in order to get up at 5AM to make the hike out to Mill Creek Falls at first light. Neither of us were very comfortable and didn’t get much sleep. When we woke, we were both feeling rather sore and tired from the Brokeoff hike the previous evening. Not a good way to start a rather moderate hike.

The Mill Creek Falls trail is officially closed due to construction of the new visitor center and parking lot at the trailhead. But since it was Sunday, there was no construction, so we figured we could hike the trail. So we did. We just had to walk an extra mile (round-trip) since we had to park at the Brokeoff trailhead, and walk up the road to the Mill Creek trailhead. It was a rather difficult and tiring hike out to Mill Creek Falls, mainly because we were both so tired to begin with. The trail seemed like it went on and on and on and on, and it also seemed like it was more uphill going both ways there and back. Go figure that out.

Brian’s ranger friend, Russell, told us the previous night of multiple mountain lion sightings along this trail in the past couple days, plus a live deer that had half its face ripped off. That made us feel great as we hiked out on this trail in the dark pre-dawn hours. We did not enounter any kitties on the hike, though it did seem to me like it would be a good place for them to lurk with all the open meadow and tall grass along the trail.

Mill Creek Falls is a pretty nice, unique, 69 ft. high waterfall, as two creeks (East Sulpur and Bumpass) come together at the brink of the falls and drop over a precipice. Unfortunately, the cliffs here are too steep to get to the bottom of the waterfall. There is only one viewpoint along the trail where you can get a good look at the waterfall. Next time, I think, I just may bring some rope along with me and rappel myself down to the bottom. Maybe.