Silver Fork of the American River Hike

Commando and I hiked along the Silver Fork of the American River and stopped here for a long session of reading, napping, eating lunch, chasing rodents, messing around in the water, and playing splash. There's a heavily used trail along the river. About a quarter mile upstream is a small waterfall and above that some granite pools. There were tons of people in those pools and all over the surrounding rocks. I was hoping this trip wasn't going to be a bust. We left the river and headed down a wash just over a big granite ridge. It lead onto some more granite and then into the little forested area. Downstream and over another granite ridge was another small waterfall and someone's tent. We were at the river for about 2 hours and just after a splash session we were passed by two guys hopefully fishing the river. We hiked back up by just following the various granite outcroppings and then meandered (pushed through somewhat dense forest with lots of downed stuff) back to the trail.

I'll go back again in the spring, and maybe for a snowshoe trip this winter.