PHANTOM OF THE WATER
To be honest, I have had a big struggle getting motivated for day hiking in the last couple months. I think the lack of rain has a lot to do with it – it is very depressing and so lately I have preferred sleeping in on the weekends. On the other hand, I am super excited about my upcoming spring backpacking trips. I have five really good ones planned for the spring, maybe six. They are going to be awesome with many new and amazing waterfalls (just so long as we get a good amount of snow melt this spring).
Apart from all this day dreaming I figured I should probably make a better effort to get out on a day hike this weekend. Force myself out of bed. I have not done this hike in the town of Paradise before but it has been on my list for awhile. I decided that this would be the day! Why not.
It is actually a pretty easy hike and even though it is 8 miles round trip it only has 400 ft. of elevation gain. I felt like I just wanted an easy hike, nothing too difficult this time. Clear Creek Falls was the ticket. It was a very enjoyable hike, very pretty, and very scenic. Part of it involves hiking along the canal and on the flume which is quite interesting indeed.
Clear Creek Falls is a gorgeous one and is a bit higher than I expected but not quite 20 ft. high (it is 18 ft.). Do you see a phantom in the waterfall? For some people I guess it is very apparent. For me I am struggling to see anything. My wife even tried to point it out to me. I see something that looks more like a bison than a phantom. Anyhow, I had a very enjoyable time hiking in Paradise to visit the so called phantom of the water.