HikerSpace.net

I hiked Arethusa Falls this summer with my brother and his wife. We were looking forward to this, our first hike of the summer, and were not daunted by the rainy weather. Unfortunately, rain means mud and slipperyness, so we decided not to hike the Frankenstein Cliff Trail...we weren't sure what that would be like. So we just went in and out on the Arethusa Falls Trail.

The hike up the Arethusa Falls Trail is an easy one. Not very steep, and only 1.2 miles. The downside is that you're mostly traveling through the woods, so you don't see very many grand views. Of course, on a rainy wet cloudy day, we wouldn't have seen much anyway. I expect all the views were along the Frankenstein Cliffs Trail.

We were quite interested by the names of the bridges along the trail; one bridge was named "The King's Highway Bridge" (or something like that...Jonathan said it was a Biblical reference) and the other was "The Bridge Of Khazad Dum". That's right. We crossed the Bridge of  (more...)

Didnt realize the hike would be so long started out towards Frankenstein Cliffs. Slow upgrade in the begining then about 10 -15 minutes into the hike it got steep. It was comfortable weather and I was with my 3 sons 15 14 and 8. We took a few 10 minute catch your breath water breaks until we reached the cliffs. We were all pretty soaked with sweat so we were definitely working hard. Almost ran out of water. The trek from the cliffs to the falls was a slow decline long steep at times. Throughout the whole hike there were a couple of other falls . Arethusa falls was real nice wished it was warmer weather but stuck my feet in the FREEZING clear water anyway. BRRRR! The hike out was man made with log and stone steps and a lot of huge root would have been a good smaller family hike in and out of the falls would take about 3 hours round trip. The trail was marked with blue markers throughout. Good first hike. Liked having a soothing destination to relax at.  (more...)