Cliff Creek and Monument Ridge

Back in the spring, Jeremy tried to take me on a ride up to Cliff Creek falls. After a few miles of pushing through terrible mud, we turned around, to be seen another day.

Late in the summer, I decided it was worth having another go at it, hoping it was dry. David went with me, and the plan was to ride the Monument Ridge loop and add on the out and back to Cliff Creek Falls.

The trail was drier, although surprisingly there were still a couple of muddy spots. But even dry the trail to Cliff Creek Falls is still quite slow and challenging. Fortunately, the scenery is fantastic. Although not particularly long, the trail to Cliff Creek falls feels like it passes through numerous landscapes.

Dirt tree'ed single track

Rolling, smoothed, crushed rock

Narrow with amazingly colored pools

 Finally, we made it to the falls, which were quite spectacular, dropping close to 100ft into a small pool. We stopped for a bit to eat something, then got going, as we still had lots of miles planned for the day.

 As we were about to start rolling back the way we came, I looked up the next canyon, and noticed a waterfall about twice as high as the one we had been hanging out by. I'm still not sure how we missed that one on the way up, but glad we f

 And then it was back to riding down the trail, which was fantastic in the descending direction. Along the way back, I saw my first bears while biking. There were a mom and 2 or 3 very small cubs. I managed to spook the mom, and then ride right between her and her cubs.

 After getting back to the forest service road, we climbed to Monument Ridge, which had amazing views.

 Then we rode the 'trail' down the ridge to the highway, and then the highway a few miles back to the car.

It was a long ride, and a hot day, but it is always great to take the bike out into the woods to see new places.