Snowshoe Adventure

About a month ago (yes, I'm really behind), Clint and I decided we wanted to get some more use out of our snowshoes. We knew Matt and Gemma were always down for an adventure, so we invited them along. Turns out they didn't have their own snowshoes, so they made a trip that night to REI (guess our invite was the motivation to make the purchase!).

We met the next morning in Northbend at the Riverbend Cafe for breakfast, then headed further north towards Denny Creek. We didn't have a certain spot in mind (and the ranger station was closed), so we drove out as far as we could in the snow and decided to head along the Franklin Falls Trail.

We parked, strapped on our shoes, and hiked out to the trailhead. We passed through the snow covered Denny Creek campgrounds along the way.

all set!

Matt and Gemma

beautiful scenery

arguing about where we were

made it!

Once at the trailhead, we started the mile hike to the falls. It was a quiet day on the trail (which was nice), but we did run into a couple other groups of hikers. The scenery was so beautiful, crazy to think all this is just a short drive away.

testing out snowshoes in deeper snow...
and playing with GPS

We hiked along taking a few breaks (snowshoeing uphill can be tiring!), and started to hear the falls. Turns out we were hearing a smaller waterfall and realized our hike wasn't done yet.

about halfway to the "real" falls

We eventually made it to the real deal, and it was pretty cool to see. The falls are just below I-90 where I've driven past probably a hundred times and never realized.

Franklin Falls

At the falls, we sat down for a little picnic. Matt had brought a compact stove/thermos and made us some hot apple cider...spiked with rum of course, we needed to reward ourselves!

There was also a guy out for a hike when we first got there, so he was able to get a group shot for us.

snowshoe adventurers 

It was a great Sunday Funday, we all had a great time and loved getting more use out of our snowshoes (now if we could only fit in another trip before all the snow melts!). Thanks making the trek with us, Matt and Gemma!

Some Instagram photos "nursegemma" took from the day:

boys and their toys

release the Kraken!