Hiking to Comet Falls was something that I wanted to do for about a day. I was checking out Facebook one morning and then saw a post of “16 short hikes to take in Washington state” and I checked it out! Luckily, i had gone one about half of them, but there was one that sounded AMAZING- Comet Falls. A huge waterfall tucked into the Mt. Rainier National Forest. Uh, count me in! I did a little research, found out that it was only a 3 hour drive away, packed Raylee up, and we were off.

The more I go on these hikes, the more I realize that I need to do more research. It was a short hike up to Comet Falls, but what I didn’t realize was that it was a 1200 ft gain. Not a huge gain, but quite a bit in just a short 1.8 miles. It was STEEP. And it was hard. Especially with a 35+ lbs pack on my back, with the majority of that weight my wiggly 2 year old. It was full of rocky, stair-like switch backs. And i’m way more out of shape than I’d like to admit. After about the first half mile, I had to stop and re-evaluate my decision to keep going or to turn back. I was only that far in and it had been about 30 minutes. WHAT?! It was crazy, you guys. I kept at it, and figured that at SOME point, it had to flatten out. Well, I was wrong, and we just kept going up and up and up. About 1.2 miles I decided that I could go just a little bit further. I had to be almost there, and I was closer to the falls than I was the car and I knew I would be upset with myself if I stopped there, so I kept on. Before I knew it, I saw a “Comet Fall 200 ft” sign, and there it was!

Or so I thought.

There was a glorious waterfall up the small river, but what I thought was Comet Falls was actually Bloucher Falls. We took some photos there, and then decided to head back down. It ended up taking 2 hours up to the falls, and I knew that we had to get back sooner than later so we headed back to the car. As we kept walking down the mountain, I couldn’t help but think how odd it was that we hadn’t ran into anyone at the falls. There were quite a few people that had ended up passing us on the way up, but they were no where to be seen when we got up there. And then I thought about it. And realized that we hadn’t seen Comet Falls, but actually Bloucher Falls. UGH.

I was disappointed. I still am disappointed. I pushed through that hike. I felt like I was going to pass out sometimes. I just kept moving my feet, not quickly at all, but just kept moving. My legs were burning. My butt was in pain. My knee and ankles hurt, but I kept going to what I thought was my destination, only to realize 1.8 miles, and 40 minutes later at the car that we hadn’t seen what we really came to see.

I don’t know why that was so hard for me, but it is still bothering me. Bothering me to the point that I almost went back the next day to do it again. But then could hardly walk that morning. HA!

It was a good lesson for me though. A perfect life lesson. There are going to be times that I have to go through hard things. Things that I think there’s no way I can make it through. Things that I just want to not have such a heavy burden to bear, and it would make it easier. Times that I want to turn back and just go home. But I can push through it, and I can do hard things. And there will be times that I push through it, and make it to the end, and still don’t have the end result that I wanted. That I could have pushed just a little harder if I would have known more, or had more experience, and it would have ended up just perfectly. But life isn’t perfect, and there’s time we need to give ourselves grace.

No matter how hard we pushed, no matter if we didn’t make it to our destination because we were unsure if it actually was that final destination, we need to be proud of ourselves, and realize that we really did great. That we can do things we think are impossible, and when we don’t make it, we can always try harder next time.

We did end up seeing Bloucher Falls as well as Christine Falls so it was a successful waterfall chasing adventure, and it gives me a good excuse to go back to Comet Falls. This time with the knowledge I need to finally make it there! And maybe next time I’ll leave Raylee home.

Mt. Rainier never disappoints.

I LOVE how blue mountain water is! There’s something about it that I can’t get enough of!

Another little falls up the hike…i don’t think this one has a name though. It’s just above Christine Falls.

This looked WAY steeper in person.

The dreaded sign…..

Then you had to cross this sketchy foot bridge and go over another little mound and THEN you’d see Comet Falls. And we didn’t do that. *sad face*

This is Bloucher Falls.

Hooray for self timers.

And taking selfies when Raylee just kept screaming to go home.

We hiked down the mountain, loaded up in the car, and then stopped to take photos of Christine Falls, which is just right off the road.

I can’t wait to actually show you what Comet Falls looks like though…so keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks!