It has been a few years since I’ve hiked up the Palisades Creek Trail in the Snake River Range. With all the snow and water in the mountains this year, I wanted to see the waterfalls in all their glory. They did not disappoint.

June is a great time to visit Waterfall Canyon to see big water jump off a cliff. There are two main falls on both sides of the canyon and they should be roaring for a few more weeks because there’s still plenty of snow yet to melt off on the higher ridges.

I started my overnight hike from the trailhead at a shade past 3 p.m. When I arrived at the Lower Lake (after 4.5 miles), it started sprinkling. The last forecast I saw was decreasing showers in the afternoon and evening. The sprinkles turned into a full on rain and I hustled off to the Forest Service cabin about 1 mile up the trail and sat inside with the door open and watched a steady drenching going on outside. This spooky, abused cabin has a sign that says it’s not for camping. For some reason known only to dough heads, it’s full of holes, trashed camping gear and mice, but it does have a good roof to keep out the rain.

I took the break as an opportunity to cook and eat dinner. About the time I finished eating and packing everything up, the rain stopped. Across the meadow — near the intersection with the Chicken Springs trail — a soaked trail runner was filling up his water bottle.

“I started at Mikesell Canyon,” he told me, “I don’t think I’ll do that trail again. My girlfriend is supposed to pick me up at the Palisades Creek trailhead.” I’m guessing his route was roughly 20 miles. All of his clothes were soaked and sticking to his skin.

I continued hiking to the Upper Palisades Lake and picked a reasonably dry spot to camp under a huge fir tree a little past the upper end of the lake near some horse campsites (about 8 miles in). After setting up my tent, eating some snacks and hanging my food, I went to bed dreaming of blue skies in the morning.

I woke to blue skies but all of the bushes along the trail were still dripping wet and eager to drench me from the thighs down.

After breakfast I left behind all of my gear except for food and water and hiked up to Waterfall Canyon (about 10.5 miles from the start). This section of trail is slower going for two reasons: First, there’s lots of downfall along the trail (horseback riders beware), and second, some sections of trail were still under a foot or two of snow. The buried trail sections force hikers to use intuition and inspired guess work to follow the route. Of course I wandered off route a couple of times, but managed to eventually find my way.

The impressive waterfalls are roaring (bring a camera).

One famous critter along this trail is the moose. I saw four. Be on the look out for moose in the huge willow mass along the creek upstream from the Lower Lake. I also saw a bull moose in the beaver-created pond just upstream from the large steel bridge over the creek on your way up to the Upper Lake.

Palisades Creek Canyon also has a population of mountain goats. I’ve seen a few on past hikes there, but not this trip.

Expect to also see people on this trail any day of the week. The primo views and generally moderate to easy hiking attracts many (and their dogs). I saw dozens of hikers, bikers and anglers. Two women anglers day-hiked up to the Upper Lake and reported “lots of 12-inchers that are easy to catch.”

If you’re interested in backpacking up this canyon, there are a few nice camping spots to look for. The first is just before the Lower Lake (about 4.5 miles up). This site has an outhouse and picnic table. A mile farther not far from the cabin is a designated camping area over a beat up foot bridge across the creek. This site used to have an outhouse (though I didn’t hunt around to confirm this). The next campsites are on the downstream (west) end of the Upper Lake. I stayed at a site beyond the upstream end (east) of the Upper Lake. There is an outhouse at these sites.

While the popularity of Palisades Creek Trail is well deserved, there are also several other area trails in most of the canyons that are also awesome outings. Once you’ve had your fill of Palisades Creek, try out the others in the area.