I took the scenic route to Prospect. I stopped at a spot along the South Umpqua River just before Tiller and got a few shots that I liked a lot. I ended up on a very curvy, and fun, road on my way to Butte Falls. I had seen pictures of the falls before and wasn’t overly impressed. Now I’ve seen it in person and probably will never be back. I’m not saying it’s horrible, but it doesn’t do much for me. And this is from someone who can be pleased as punch with a tiny bit of water dropping a foot on a creek. Different strokes and all.

Road 992 had a lot of color in a lot of places, but nowhere really good to stop, so I just enjoyed the drive. I stopped at Pearsony Falls and got a few shots before the sun came out. The owner of the hotel told me that there would probably be snow at National Creek Falls. He was right, so I ended up turning around at the first road off SR230. I could have continued on that, but there was no way that I would have been able to take the next road. That also meant that Muir Creek Falls would be out of the question. I didn’t even continue to Lower Rogue Falls (aka Highway Falls) since I doubted that I would be able to pull over.

I finished the day scouting. I marked waypoints for each trailhead and walked a short distance on each. I walked to Natural Bridge, although I didn’t take any photographs. I’ll return on an overcast day. I noticed that they had enlarged the parking area and had installed a new vault toilet. Good. The old toilet had a sign saying how environmentally friendly it was. It had a slanted black roof that was supposed to create air currents to remove odors. It may have been a wonderful concept but the execution literally stunk.

I’m feeling optimism that this is going to be a really good week. One thing that’s different is that instead of driving an hour to an hour and a half to get to each day’s trail I’ll be doing all of my hiking within about a fifteen mile radius. That will be nice, but it isn’t really the point. I’m just feeling anticipation that the hikes are going to be good. Time will tell.