FIVE
Hike number five of my Christmas vacation. And the last.
Mill Creek Falls is definitely my favorite snowshoe hike. It is perfect. You can drive right to the trailhead (the road is plowed). There is always a lot of snow there (five feet or so when I went). It is a good distance hike but not hard (2.5 miles one way) … And, most importantly, there’s a beautiful waterfall at the end!
This is the second time I’ve snowshoed here. I went a couple years ago with my wife, but this time I was all alone and I had brand new snowshoes to try out (a Christmas gift, half of which was from Tara – thanks hun!). Last time no one had been on the trail and we were making our own path through the snow. This time there was a well trodden path the whole way. Technically, I did not even need snowshoes but I wore them anyway cuz I did not want to carry them. I made very good time to the waterfall. It was absolutely gorgeous.
After taking photographs, I continued on the trail past Mill Creek Falls. There were zero tracks after the waterfall. I was making my own way through the virgin powder. The snowshoes handled awesomely in the deep soft snow. It was so incredibly beautiful. I went all the way to Crumbaugh Lake which was completely snowed and frozen over. It was amazing. I wanted to go further but it was tough going. It took two hours to hike the two mikes from the waterfall to the lake. I was out of time so I turned back. That was probably a good thing because it started snowing just when I got back to the car.
Even though the trail to Mill Creek Falls was so well trodden, I did not see anyone for the entire hike. I was a bit surprised about that. Interestingly however, I did see some ski tracks that came up the mountain after me (on the other side of the falls),but they turned off a different way and I never saw them. It was an incredibly beautiful and awesome snow day in Lassen Volcanic National Park.