Russian River Falls Hike

This past Saturday, February 3, we layered up and drove out to Cooper Landing and the Russian River Campground. There is an easy hike there that takes you out to a beautiful set of small waterfalls. In the summer, the salmon run up through there, and you can frequently see bears grabbing an easy meal. We haven't been fortunate enough to see that yet, but we're hoping that will change this summer.

This is the first time we hiked the trail in the winter, and it was beautiful! We picked a really clear, sunny day, so we got great views and awesome light as we were hiking. It was pretty cold that day though, at seven degrees when we got back to the vehicle. :) But once you get moving, you warm up quite a bit. We saw several other hikers and even two cross country skiers. We had a great time!

Frozen waterfall that we crossed over - there was a small bridge there:

We passed through a meadow area that was full of trees and plants covered with snow crystals. The trees looked like giant snowflakes.

About two-thirds of the way down the trail, there is another small bridge that splits the trail. You can go out to the left to get to Russian Lake and a small cabin that you can rent. Or you can keep going straight to get to the falls. The river runs under the bridge and had huge chunks of ice that were hanging over it at that spot.

At last, we got to the falls. It didn't take that long - about an hour and a half. But, it was definitely worth the hike.

The upper part of the river:

Middle of the falls:

Lower part of the falls:

Panoramic:

Views on the way back:

Barron's beard doubled in size while we were hiking from all of the icicles he collected! :)

Amazing view on our drive home:

What an awesome day!