Millstone Lake and Jackson Falls loop hike


Another great weekend of weather was on the way.  I had been planning to hike a local wildlife area with Lucy while Laura did some work on Sunday, but when some friends mentioned that they also wanted to hike, we made a new plan.  We each tossed out a few ideas for hikes; I said that whatever we did, I'd prefer it involve water of some variety. Micah mentioned a loop from Millstone Lake to Jackson Falls and back that sounded just right.  We met up the next day and headed down with 3 adults, 2 dogs, and 1 baby.

Micah and both studied maps and decided to go counter-clockwise so that we could tackle more topography earlier on in the hike and have a flatter hike on the way back.  Man, that was the right choice!  I hadn't hiked more than a mile here or there with Lucy and gear and the total 6-6.5 mile round trip plumb wore me out for days! Between Lucy, her gear, camera gear, and emergency supplies, I'd estimate I had an extra 40-50 pounds on me which I felt more and more as we went.  It is that time of year where I shift from couch potato to fit hiker, so I guess it kicked me into high gear early.

We took our time on the way up, stopping to take in the sights like the lake, rock walls, waterfalls, creeks, and falling icicles!  I wasn't able to stop for more than 30 seconds at a time or Lucy would wake up and start crying.  I felt like a sled dog being told to mush!

Speaking of dogs, they were well behaved and had a great hike with us.  We ran into two climbers that we know, but otherwise the only people we saw were right at or near the waterfalls.  We didn't run into anyone outside that northern area.  The dogs had a great time and behaved well when we encountered other dogs or people.  I figured out that Lucy was getting hungry and planned to feed her at the first falls that we reached (Jackson Hollow South Falls), but I'm a newb and forgot to put the bottle inside my shirt to warm it.  So we carried on to Dog Trot Falls where Hannah was kind enough to give the warm bottle to Lucy while Micah and I took pictures.  The adults all ate some lunch too before heading on.

We didn't do the finger to the west of Jackson Falls to see more sights, but I plan to head back to see them some other time, coming in from the north entrance instead. On the way back, we moved pretty quickly through the bottomlands and back to the truck in time to head for dinner.  Lucy had a rough ride home, finally waking up after a long day of sleeping on dad.

I have tried to place these photos in sequential order with a few landmarks noted along the way so that you can follow along with our hike, but there may be a few in the wrong spots. The red Xs on the map indicate the named waterfalls from Joe Littleton's list. We also encountered two or three small, unnamed falls but I didn't mark them.  One was somewhere between the forest service road crossing and Jackson Hollow South Falls and the other two were near the terminus of the short eastward spur in our track about 2/3 of the way back along the bottomland trail.









Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller


Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller









Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller
Small, unnamed waterfall








Jackson Hollow South Falls













Dog Trot Falls

Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller














Jackson Falls






Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller
Photo by Micah Miller
North Side Falls





Small, unnamed waterfalls on route back



Millstone Lake parking area






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