Little Mashel Falls - Bud Blancher Trail — Wednesday, Jul. 2, 2025

Lovely trail, and so close to town. The tempting thimbleberries are coming on, the falls are gorgeous, and this was a very manageable destination to kill a few hours and avoid sitting in traffic. Only obstacles my son and I encountered were a log to step over on the way to the middle falls, and some salmonberry and thimbleberry reaching their branches out into the trail. They may need to be clipped at some point. The trail could also use some maintenance, as there were some collapsed railings and eroded steps in places especially at the base of the lower falls.

We picked up the trail from the Smallwood Park parking lot, and it was much easier to follow than I expected. The trail is very well signed. Once on the trail (almost) every turn is marked. (Of course a map is still an essential, Gaia worked well for this one.) We just visited the lower and middle falls before turning around to head home.

My eight-year-old son had been bugging me about going to NW Trek again since well before school got out, so I had made him a deal. We'd do NW Trek, and then go for a hike instead of sit in traffic. Total win-win. We live north of Seattle, finished our hike around 7pm, and it was smooth sailing all the way home.

Consider bringing a trash bag. We found more than I could carry out in the little bag I had.