Today's adventure is a hike up the South fork of Lytle creek to the waterfalls known as..

South Fork Falls!!

I drove up Lytle creek canyon to the turnout just before the town. That's where the hike begins. We climbed down the hill to Lytle creek and made our way across. From there we continued up the wide open rocky wash bed that goes up the South fork. There are a few sections of use trail along this hike, but the majority of it is rock hopping through the wash bed. About a half mile in you go by Bonita canyon that goes up to the very popular Bonita falls. As the name implies it is a beautiful waterfall... but that's where everyone goes. I wanted a bit more adventure so we kept hiking up the canyon, beyond where most people go.

The trailhead

Hiking up the South Fork wash

Looking up Bonita canyon with Bonita falls in the distance

Not far passed Bonita canyon we got to where the South fork creek began flowing. We followed the creek up to where the canyon splits again. We went up the South fork of the South fork. We climbed up into the canyon and went across a large flat area where mining operations used to exist. At the far end of the flats there was even an old mine about 30 feet up on the hill! After checking out the mine we continued up. The canyon made a hard turn an immediately got much narrower. After making our way through a few obstacles we arrived at the bottom of the lowest of the 3 waterfalls that make South Fork Falls!!

Old hardrock mine

Arriving at the first waterfall

This was the end of the road for the kids (my dogs) since climbing around the falls is a class 3 rock climb. So I layed a blanket down for the kids and we sat there by the falls and enjoyed a nice little snack break. Once the kids were all comfy and relaxing I decided to make the rock climb up to the upper waterfalls. All 3 are beautiful waterfalls and the last of them is around 100 feet tall!!

Relaxing by the falls with the kiddos

The view of the falls from our break spot

Looking off the top of the second waterfall

The last and tallest of the waterfalls

After exploring all the waterfalls I climbed back down to our break spot at the bottom and relaxed with the kids there for awhile longer. It was so nice there, it was hard to leave. There is something about the energy that comes from a waterfall that makes you feel good and pure and free. But eventually we had to pack up and make the hike back out. We made it back without any problems wrapping up another super fun day of exploring!!

Hiking back

Recrossing the main fork of Lytle creek at the end of the hike

Thanks for reading!!

*All photos are taken by @derekrichardson

Map - !steemitworldmap 34.233071 lat -117.505385 long 'South Fork Lytle Creek' D3SCR
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