Mirror Lake & Chilnualna Falls Trails

What a difference a day makes! Today is Monday, Memorial Day, but the park is already less crowded. (Lots of cars headed out of the park). We hiked to Mirror Lake, a delightful, somewhat hilly path next to a beautiful creek. Mirror Lake should be called Mirror Marsh. If it was once a lake, now it is a pond area and marsh. I was shocked, however, to see how much of a mirror it made, even with vegetation in it. At one point, you would swear you were looking at a cliff, not water!

After that, we left the park on a supply mission. Our condo fridge froze all our salad greens, which are our dinners. Our condo is located within the park - very convenient - still a 30 minute drive to the valley, but as close as possible to all the main sites. It is also about an hour the other direction to the nearest town with a grocery store. Upon our return, the line to re-enter the park was about 20 cars, nothing like the probably 2-3 mile line when we arrived Saturday.

On our way to the town, we stopped at a spectacular waterfall. Chilnualna Falls is a series of powerful cascades and falls (700 feet of them), splashing down granite cliffs and gullies. Photos cannot capture it because this long line of falls and cascades are somewhat/completely obscured by trees, rocks, vegetation, and curves in the creek.Read more