Great hike! We started at about 9:30am, finished at 12:30pm. Started at Licorice Fern, turned left on the Indian trail, then went up to the Far County Lookout. On your way up this trail, it comes to a fork, and the sign is lying on the ground, so we had to figure out whether to go left or right to get to the lookout. We guessed left, and we were correct! So if you are headed to the lookout, turn left at the fork. Turning right will take you up and over the mountain via Shy Bear Pass. After resting at the lookout, we went back down to the Indian Trail and took the side trail to the Far County Falls - BEAUTIFUL!! The highlight of the day. But cold. The falls are frozen, and it was cold standing next to the water/ice with very little sunlight. We snapped a few pictures and then began the return journey. There are a few trees down along the way, but we had no problem climbing over. Also the ground was crunchy - a little icy in spots, but we were just careful and went slowly. I had poles, so that helped. We were both in regular hiking boots, no spikes, and we did just fine.

This was a quick little "lunch break" hike today, and it was a perfect one! The directions on wta are great. There were a couple of blowdowns (easy to get over) and thousands of wet leaves on the trail due to the storm yesterday. I hiked with my hiking boots and poles because I guess correctly that it was a bit slippery. Lucky the waterfall was flowing strong too! I chose to go to Far Country Falls and skip the Lookout, because I could hear the waterfall from up the trail and knew it would be cool to see after a big storm. Only saw two other people, and that was on Indian Trail.

The waterfall was dried up and the overlook was very small. Good, easy hike, but not a lot of views.

Nice trail. For an 'easy' hike it had a lot of up and down. Didn't meet anyone until it crossed the viewpoint trail. Nice NW native plants.

Great day hike with incredible ferns and connecting trails on Cougar Mountain.