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On Thursday I hiked to Lake Serene and talked about the branch trail that leads to Bridal Veil Falls. Friday I decided to just do the hike to Bridal Veil. I won’t go into much detail about the overall hike since you can read more here. What I can confirm is that just going directly to the falls and back will net you almost exactly four miles round trip with just over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Here’s a short video of the falls. It’s hard to really capture the beauty of the falls but this gets some of it.
Thursday I had heard what I thought must be hummingbirds on a lower section of the trail but didn’t see any. Friday I actually saw a couple. There’s a section of the trail with a lot of Salmonberry bushes in bloom and the hummingbirds must love them.
Four miles didn’t seem like enough of a workout so I continued up Highway 2 a couple of miles to the trailhead for Heybrook Lookout. This is a short but steep climb to a unique lookout. It’s unique IMHO in that I’m not sure the point of it. Most fire lookouts were built on top of peaks that gave a 360 degree view of the surrounding country. In this regard Heybrook seems pretty low in elevation although I’m guessing that after the original forest was clear cut there was probably a better view. Regardless the point, it’s a nice structure and is one of the few fire lookouts that you can actually reserve and spend the night in.
Looking back across the valley from the top of the lookout you can see Bridal Veil Falls. I will say that as you drive west on Highway 2 you’ll actually get a better view of the falls than you do from the lookout, but where’s the fun in that?
Heybrook is almost exactly two miles round trip with ~900 feet of elevation gain, most of which you do in the first three quarters of a mile. It’s steep but achievable for most people if you take breaks. The “parking lot” is just a wide shoulder along the highway but it has room for quite a few vehicles and is a popular hike.
[…] morning I hiked to the Heybrook Lookout as a little warm up hike and then drove back down the highway a couple of miles to Index and hiked […]