Trail reports for Helton Creek Falls

Overall rating: 5
Scenic rating: 5
Difficulty rating: 2
First, I passed the “very small” brown sign on the right side of the HWY, so I had to turn around and come back. Then, I drove past a neighborhood of cabins on a paved road. I kept looking for another Helton Falls sign, but there were no more signs. You keep driving straight. All of a sudden the very narrow paved “drive/path/road” ends and you are driving on dirt and gravel road. Make sure you drive with your headlights turned on, so others can see you coming on the very curvy road. Once you get on the dirt and gravel road, there is nowhere to turn around. You will think that you are lost, but you aren’t lost. There is barely enough room for two cars to drive on that meet each other. After driving “lost” for about a mile or two, you finally arrive to a very small parking area. The trail was very easy, not at all like the drive at all. There are two parts of Helton Falls. The first part was walking down maybe 5-6 steps. You could wade in the beautiful clear COLD water and look up at what we thought was the water fall. There is a cave across the large stream. A man and woman looked in and saw a bat. I only heard the “B” part of bat, thinking he said BEAR and almost took off. We all laughed.  Then walk back up the 5-6 steps, a couple of hundred yards, which is mostly a flat terrain to a small wooden deck that overlooks the beautiful flowing waterfall. You can walk under the deck and into the water. There were three little girls swimming in the iced, cold water. Their parents were sitting in lounge chairs watching them and eating snacks. It was beautiful. The sun made the water shine with glitter; it reminded me of silver glitter that you use in arts and crafts in elementary school. This was the easiest trail that I have been on so far. Unfortunately, it is not handicapped accessible. They also need a trash can for the people who feel the need to toss an occasional beer can, soda can and/or water bottle along the way. Of course, I picked up several pieces of garbage along the trail and disposed of at the nearest trash can later on during my drive down the HWY. After all, Smokey the Bear or Smokey Bear (however, you choose to call him) was a “childhood friend” that many children of my area (early 1970s) loved and adored.