Our Latest Adventure...Sheep Falls, Union Falls, & Ouzel Pool

We survived our latest adventure, barely. Grammy Suzie and Papa (Erica's parents) wanted to have McKinley and Gavin come visit for a few days. Jamison would stay with us. We figured that it would be a good time for a hike. It would be tough packing 43 lbs of McKinley or 35 lbs of Gavin for very far. We had been talking about going to Union Falls for a month or so with Morgan and Sophie and this was the perfect opportunity. We got all of our stuff ready and drove up towards Ashton on Friday night. A coworker had mentioned the rarely visited Sheep Falls which you can almost drive to. We found directions and decided to make the detour, we were hoping to make it to Cave Falls too, but didn't make it there.

Sheep Falls was awesome! You can stand right above it and walk along it and take pictures.


A high clearance vehicle is required! (Note: a Honda CRV is not a high clearance vehicle). We scraped and bounced along about a 1/2 mile before we surrendered and parked the car. The 12" drop off the rock ledge was the deciding factor. We walked the last mile in and enjoyed the view. If anyone wants to visit we would be glad to give directions and tips.

We drove back around to camp near Loon Lake. The campground was mostly full so we camped at the trailhead near Fish Lake. We hiked in to Union Falls (about 6.5 miles one way) which is quite the spectacle with about 250 ft drop. Jamison had fun most of the time. Here he is at the beginning of the trip. He slept a lot.


There are three river crossings that you have to make so we carried our sandals. After enjoying the view for a few minutes we walked the short trail to a warm creek which has a 4 ft waterfall that drops into a deep pool. We spent over an hour playing in the pool. Jamison loved it. He was tired of riding in the backpack and had so much fun playing and splashing in the pool. Sophie had her waterproof camera box so she has all the pictures of the pool on her camera. We'll have to get them from her.


The warm creek joins Mountain Ash Creek were we stopped for lunch. Upstream of the confluence it is still warm and Jamison had a good break from riding in the backpack playing in the water. It was so funny to watch him having fun in the middle of a creek in the mountains. Usually they are really cold!


The 13 miles was enough for one day for us. It was pretty hot on the way in and I knew I was in trouble when I started chafing on the way in. I'll spare you the grisly details but I was glad to make it to the car. Our feet were tired and my back and shoulders were tired from carrying Jamison but it was a fun day. I love to spend time doing things with Morgan and Sophie. They are the best! We love them and appreciate all of the help they give us.