This trail description probably needs a revision.  More on that later.

I selected this hike for my December hike.  I noticed that about 17 people rated this hike a '5'.  So, I was hoping for something great. If this was in your backyard, you would visit it frequently.  For someone who drove a fair amount to get here, I will not give it a '5'.  The Middle Falls was definitely the crown jewel of the hike, and probably a '4' in its own right.  But, the rest of the trail was pretty standard NW hiking.

It rained my entire drive down to the trailhead.  Then, it suddenly stopped when I reached the trailhead!!  The weather for the rest of the hike was perfect. The sun even peeked out.  There is tons of parking here and a very clean Porta Potty.

The first mile of the trail is on the wide gravel path that passes around backyards with pets and chainsaw running.  So, not much of a get-away yet.

But, taking the left into the Little Mashel Falls Trail is very different.  You definitely feel removed from civilization in this forest.  The trail is very easy to traverse.  It was muddy, but not that bad.  The right shoes makes it easy.  The mud never grabbed my boots or made me slip.  There were a number of very small trees that had fallen that were easy enough to step over.

So, the first change I would make to the hike description was that I found the signage perfectly good.  There were small diamond-shaped signs on the trees at all the key intersections.  And, in some spots there were brown Forest Service signs.

The walk down to the Lower Falls is pretty muddy and potentially slippery.  I headed the warning of the descriptions and other trip reports and stepped carefully and paid attention.  I did not descend the crib ladder to get to actual water.  But, you don't need to.  The view of the falls from the top of the ladder is great.  You are practically right there.  It is impressive how much water is flowing through the "Little" Mashel river.  It is a very powerful river and quite a gem to be able to approach so closely.  Above the lower falls is an impressive amount of mist flying through the air.  Oh my, the Middle Falls must be pretty powerful.

After getting back to the main trail, I went to find the Middle and Upper.  This is where the trail description seems out dated.  When I zoom in on the map within WTA and see the orange highlighted route, I found that the orange route does not totally exist anymore.  You can see my revised route.  But, the Middle Falls is very approachable from a different path than the description provides.  And, it has one of those diamond signs pointing you in the direction.  So, maybe this is a new trail?  I could not find any "treacherous" trail from the Middle Falls to the top of the Middle Falls.  Instead, if you continue up the main trail you will see another diamond sign for the upper falls.  There is a left that you can use to get to the top of the Middle Falls.   I took that left to the point that I circled on my alternate route picture.  The right takes you to the top of the Middle Falls.  The left that would indicate bringing you down to the base of the Middle Falls did not seem to exist.  And, when I was coming back from the Middle Falls (using the route that I marked), I did not see another trail intersecting from the Upper Falls.

But, I did not go the entire way because the last 50 feet or so were a little too muddy and slippery for me.

The trail to the Upper Falls was mostly fine.  I had to be careful of my step in a couple areas.  I arrived at a large downed tree that you can walk around.  But, beyond that was more trail that looked a little too much for me.  It was narrow, the footing didn't look great, and it looked slippery.  So, I did not wade across the river to get right next to the Upper Falls.  But, that was fine.  The view was still great.

My hiking buddy and I were prepared to get soaked in the rain (and on the drive from Seattle, I really thought it would be pelting down) but it turned out much windier than anything! We parked at the Bud Blanchard trailhead. The parking lot reflected the weather: there were only 5 or so cars in the lot. Because of the weather, we didn’t see too many people on the trails.

It was one of those days where one couldn’t decide if it was chilly or not. It was super windy on the first part of the hike but then as we got further into the woods, it was fine. My friend and I run hot so we were de-robing and re-robing frequently! So in true PNW fashion, layers are the name of the game.

The hike itself is pretty easy (and would be even easier when dry). It was also moderately easy on the heart rate front. The first part of the hike is a wide, gravel trail and then we turned off on to a single track path up to the falls. There’s only one moderate and quite long hill up to where we split off for the falls. The signage isn’t super great so a map may be helpful.

The paths down to the falls, however, are pretty technical… root-heavy and super muddy. The recent rains have completely washed out the trail down to the falls in places down to the point where the fabric base of the trail is exposed. Be careful going down as the mud and rocks are slippy. Some poles might have been helpful here.

The falls (we went to upper and middle) were pretty spectacular even in the overcast, misty weather. You can hear the river most of the way up but as you go down, it becomes thunderous! We weren’t expecting such lovely falls. We went to upper first where there were quite a few people (including some going behind the falls) and then stopped off at middle, where we ate lunch. The way back was much easier. There were more people starting off with the rain tapering off but still a sparse hike. All in all a lovely few hours in the woods!

With a few detours, our hike was ~4 miles and about 1 hour 30 walking time.

We had a great hike up to Hugo Peak, down the Reservoir Trail, over to the Little Mashel Falls and back on the Bud Blanchard trail. Total was about 8 miles.
There were quite a few trees down on the Reservoir Trail. Huge shout-out to Tom and Randy who were volunteering were cutting them out of the way. Much appreciated! The reservoir trail went through an old growth stand of the forest and was absolutely beautiful.
The trail by the waterfalls was muddy, but not terrible. The Middle and Lower falls were especially impressive.

Pretty easy trail with a beautiful payoff! pay attention to trail markers, I "missed my exit" from the main service road trail to the falls trail.

First time hiking it with small kids (6 & 9). We went to the middle falls, and just had to assist a little on the steep part getting down to the falls. The youngest was dragging a bit when almost back to the car.

They liked it a lot though! Especially going behind the waterfall..