On November 27, 2023, a beautiful Monday morning, a day when I would normally set out to climb one of the high peaks, I decided to stay in town and hike up to St. Mary's Falls. It's a 6 mile round trip trail with an elevation gain of about 1,400 feet. I went back there to look at the falls a couple of decades ago, but they were farther away than I thought that day, so I never made it there. Back then I didn't have all the resources we have today like trail apps and GPS. I just saw it on a paper forest map, which were great back then, but I didn't grasp that it was a 3 mile hike to see the falls. So I got bored of hiking after probably 2.0 - 2.5 miles and I turned around. Never really gave it much thought after that. But these days I like to get out into the mountains more, so this seemed like a good choice. There's a few photos to follow, but click on the larger, shaded text for videos to get the story.
Just past that point, there's a tunnel that's been closed as long as I've lived here. It connects the road I've been walking on (Gold Camp Road) to Gold Camp Road. I know why, but don't get me started on why it's closed. So to get to the other side of the tunnel, there's a trail on the left that goes up and over (!)
Once over the tunnel, it's almost 2 miles to the falls. Here are a few pictures of the trail: