Mountain Hiking

Forsythe Canyon,
A Cooling Refuge Just A Short Distance West 

In our summer heat, we have two good choices for relief: we can go for altitude or go for water, and Forsythe Canyon, just west of Gross Reservoir, has a nice treat tucked away. 

The day I went, I got a late start, so the sun was high and hot. The first two hundred yards or so took me down a dirt road through open pine and fir—4-wheel drive, forest road 359. The towering cliffs of Forsythe Rock reached up to the north. Down the hill, a drive branched to the left into a flat open space with some fire rings and the “true” trailhead with a trail sign numbered 852. 

Forsythe Canyon Creek makes a small contribution to the northern arm of Gross Reservoir, especially at this time of year, but it is a cozy and intimate canyon, with Blue Spruce and vertical, craggy walls reaching up. There were a great variety of wildflowers: asters, pinks, whites, yellows, strawberry-like blooms, fireweed, black-eyed Susan, bluebells, clovers, and a sedum. As usual, I found myself wishing I were more of a naturalist, so that I could come up with specific names, but even in ignorance, I enjoyed the color.

I came to a rock-slabbed basin where hikers or campers had partially dammed the stream to form a pool. All along the way, the waters and riffles murmured and burbled at me on one side, and the rock and soil wafted warm odors of dust, pine needles, and pitch on the other. There were hot, crusty lichens slowly covering rock surfaces and then bouncing waters that were a good bit more lively.

After just a mile, the trail deposits you at the top of a slender, 20–30-foot waterfall. There are great, rounded rocks for sitting, lounging, or even meditating. Jagged cliffs reach up to the south, and more rocks and ledges are piled up to the north. 

If you finally do decide to go on, you can return just a few feet to where the trail turns sharply north. There are two or three paths among the rocks there, above the falls, but the left-most or higher way avoids some of the ledges that may feel somewhat precipitous, although even these form stairways that offer good hand- and footholds, and the descent to the bottom is not a bad one. 

Down below, you can see that the cascade twists through tiny spaces, around boulders, down in a frothing spout into a small pool, and then over the lip and down another fifteen feet or so into a larger pool at the bottom. The base is overgrown with bushes, so the place to really enjoy the falls is definitely above. Still, the water does form a striking ribbon of white. 

Less than a tenth of a mile farther takes you to the shore of Gross Reservoir. The foot of the trail is close to the lower left corner of the thumbnail photo (click for larger view). There are some open spaces and flat rocks to the south. I found two hikers sunbathing. To the north, there are rocky spires that invited me for a scramble. These towers reach up into wide views of Forsythe Canyon to the west and of Winiger Ridge to the south.

 Forsythe Canyon Falls from high crags to the north.

Originally published in the
Daily Camera, p 6C, 7/20/2007.