Trekks and Travels: Salt Creek Falls, Vivian Lake and an unnamed pond 28 Mar 2015

Bethany and I headed to Salt Creek Falls to hike about 8 miles to Vivian lake after viewing the falls area. It was a beautiful day, clear roads, no snow anywhere near the road. We arrived at the TH and found the gate locked and no parking signs posted. There was a sno-park parking lot nearby. One other car was parked along the side, so we decided to risk, put up our forest pass, and walk to the trail head down the road. Apparently the gate doesn't open until May 1. Too bad because winter hiking at these lower elevations is an option - we had no problems on the trail, though they aren't maintained in winter. We began our hike by viewing the 246 ft Salt Creek Falls and canyon. We walked over to a side viewpoint before getting on the trail proper. We passed lots of lookouts over the canyon and crossed over Ice Age glacier-scoured basalt. We noted a little lake and a forest with so many rhododendrons it was amazing. I would love to come back in June when they are in bloom. After about 2 miles on this loop trail, we took a side trip to Diamond Creek Falls, a beautiful falls in a rocky canyon. Soon after that the trail forked and we headed across some railroad tracks to the forest and Vivian Lake. We took a rest at Falls Creek Falls then continued on. We misjudged the time, and didn't see the sign and missed the cutoff for Vivian Lake. The snow had become quite pevalent by that point and I think I had my eyes trained to the ground to make out the trail. Plus I think we were walking faster than I estimated. At any rate we kept on for perhaps another 1.5 miles past our goal. On the way, the snow got deeper (maybe 5 in) and there were no footprints to help with route finding. We used sawed logs and slight depressions in the path to determine where the trail was. We never lost it. We found a meadow with a nice view of Mt Yoran and a little unnamed pond. When we reached the pond we determined we had missed the lake and turned back. On the return we found the lake but didn't go around for the views because we were tired. Snow hiking is harder than regular hiking! Temps were warm, we were fine there. However, the trees were dripping like crazy and so it might as well have been raining! Our hike was 11 miles with 2600 ft gain. Some parts of the trail were literal streams that required some maneuvering. It was a beautiful hike and I am looking forward to hiking more in this 'neck of the woods'.
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