On the first day of September my partner Cindi and I geared up, grabbed the doggo, and headed for the Franklin Falls trailhead with the intent of seeing how far up the Denny Creek trail we could get.
We got a (I thought) fairly early start out of the house, but had farther to drive, so we didn’t arrive until close to 11. Just in the nick of time too, as the parking was filling up fast. A note to be aware of: The Denny Creek trailhead itself is closed, but luckily starting from the Franklin Falls Trailhead is only about an additional 500m. No biggie. That said, the parking at the Franklin Falls trailhead is a little tight because of this, so I advise arriving a little earlier than we did.
We hit the restroom and headed across the bridge towards the Denny Creek trailhead. Stopped there to send a hike plan to my mom with details on where we were and when we’d be checking in. While waiting for the text to go through we stretched. Both of these are critical pre-hike activities.
The creek from the bridge 
Poppy was very curious, but cautious. 
The water-carved stone is beautiful! 
Waiting to hit the trail!
The lower part of the Denny Creek trail is not steep, a jaunt through the forest under (fairly noisy) I-90. It’s beautiful and a great start, if you can ignore the freeway noise.
It felt like almost instantly that we arrived at the Denny Slabs/Slides. Large granite formations that result natural “water slides” or just a lovely place for a family picnic. Of course any stone that is wet is slick, and that holds true here, witnessed many slips in the 20 minutes we hung out there, all resulting in only bruised butts or pride.
Poppy finally got in with me. SO COLD. 
Hanging out on the slabs for a quick break.
We found the trail marked with a small “trail” sign on the other side of the lower part of the slabs and continued up. After the slabs the trail gets a little tougher, with alternating sections of talus, and forested switchbacks. There has recently been work by the WTA on this section of the trail clearing brush for a much wider trail. While a workout, the trail is fairly easy, if rocky.
Cool rock formations 
Wide trail! Rocky trail…
At one point in the middle of a section of talus we came across the gurgle of an underground stream beneath us in the rocks. Audible only for a moment as you pass over. Quite peaceful:
Not far from there we came out of some trees and got our first view of Keekwulee falls:
We saw the turnoff for the falls but decided to keep going up to see what else was up there. In the switchbacks above Keekwulee there are a couple of pretty intense exposures off of the end of the switchbacks. Luckily most are marked with a barrier of some sort, but this view gives a good idea of the drop off:
wide paths though, so not a huge risk, but something to know if you ever chose to run the trail.
We kept going up until we crossed denny creek the last time before the pass. At this point we were crossing some very old, and in need of repair, footbridges through the bottom of the valley. It was at this point we decided to turn around (I was getting hangry, Poppy needed a rest) and go back to the rock/sand bar in the middle of the creek for a quick snack, then make our way back to the falls for a proper lunch.
Quick snack had for everyone, including Miss Poppers. We continued back down the switchbacks, stopping only to take in the breeze flowing up the cliffs at the turns near the stream valley.
Finally we arrived at the turnoff for the falls, noticing a small, half-toppled cairn. Cindi left a piece of quartz she’d been carrying since the stream break at it.
When we climbed down towards the upper falls there were a few kids there, egging each other on to be brave enough to swim in the pool (which looked FRIGID). Two boys and two girls, probably late H.S. or early college age. The boys finally took the plunge, looking pretty shocked, but ok. They posed for some pics, and then got out.
Upper falls
Meanwhile we walked down towards the edge of the larger, lower falls to explore a bit.
Having gone as far as we were comfortable with the dog, we headed back up to the upper falls pool to set up a little lunch spot. By then the kids had moved on and we had a moment to ourselves with the upper falls, the blanket, and some ramen.
Before we got into lunch, though, I had to brave the pool myself, so I stripped down to my shorts and jumped in. A few seconds was plenty. Probably not much more than 32 degrees if I had to bet. Way colder than the sound.
After the dip I was ready for some hot coffee and ramen so I fired up the Jetboil and got to cooking.
Lunch view: 🤩 
Excited for coffee 
Tired puppo 
Poppy nested
I didn’t have my water filter yet, so we were limited to the water we brought, silly move. I went out and bought a Sawyer immediately after this trip. Live and learn.
Before we left I took this 360 shot:
And I had to hop up on top of the falls to get this shot looking down:
On the way out, we noticed that someone had re-built the cairn marking the falls trail, and placed Cindi’s quartz at the top of the cairn. Cindi was naturally delighted.
As we rounded the bend on our way out, I took this last parting shot of the falls:
As per the usual, the hike down was fairly uneventful, and the doggo was asleep as soon as we got to the car (maybe even the last 500m in mom’s arms). On to the next adventure!