Deadfall, Snow Creek — Sunday, Jun. 14, 2020

We started at the Deadfall trailhead and had intended to make it to Mt. Zion. As several of the other trip reports have said, don't let the 560 ft over 1.6 miles fool you. The 23% grade is accurate and you definitely gain well over 560 ft as there is a steep decline to the junction. One of the other trip reports noted it was closer to 1,000 ft of gain and 400 ft of drop before the junction. I didn't have a GPS so I can't attest to the accuracy of that but it sure felt accurate.

While the other trip reports noted the good signage at the junction, which is true, everyone in my party somehow missed the junction the first time through. There were three of us, two of us are very experienced hikers, so I'm not sure how we missed it the first time, the signs are clearly marked and two of them even had decorative rocks. In any event if you start from the Deadfall side and see the water crossing bridge in the photo, you've gone too far and should turn around. 

While we had originally intended to go all the way to Mt. Zion, after accidentally walking all of the Snow Creek trail we opted to head back for lunch instead of do the remaining 5 miles (round trip) and 1,500 ft of elevation gain from the junction. The current weather suggested there wouldn't be much of a view up top anyway. Would definitely go back and do it again now with proper expectations on the initial steepness.