Horton Creek is one of my favorite hikes in Payson. Because of Wednesday’s forest fire, I almost canceled the hike. Luckily, with the firefighters’ prompt response and endless effort, it was put out quickly. We were able to hike on the trail on Saturday.

Ten Trailblazers, along with one new member and one guest, joined this hike. Everyone was excited to hike the trail. The weather was quite chilly in the morning, a few of us had to put on extra layers to keep warm. We started at Derrick Trailhead to do the counterclockwise loop, since the parking lot was large enough to accommodate more cars.

The first three miles were uphill, starting with a gradual incline, but it proved to be quite challenging for every one of us. One mile in, we felt that our layers had to come off.

I wasn’t sure whether it was the cold weather that motivated us, or if we were just so excited to hike, but we finished our first three miles in less than an hour. We got to Highline and Derrick Trail junction at 9:06 AM, where we took our first small break.

As we moved forward on the trail, we started to notice the fall colored maple leaves scattered all around the sides of the trail. We were all excited to see the beautiful red and yellow fall colors. Lin and Quy, two of our best photographers, stopped to take many great photos. The brightened reddish leaves seemed to light up everyone’s spirits and we moved quickly through the next few miles, although we did take many opportunities to snap more pictures.

After Promontory Junction, we reached a small meadow area where we took a third break to have a chance to take in the beautiful surroundings. We had hiked about 6 miles at this point. The weather had warmed up, so we felt comfortable with the cold breeze that brushed over our faces and took a well-deserved break here.

I checked my GPS to see that we had almost reached the creek area, so after an 8 minute break, we continued going up. When we reached about a quarter mile before the creek, I smelled the smoke. Ahead of us stood 15 firefighters who were working in the burned area to check on the surrounding ground, making sure that no more potential fire danger existed anymore. We stopped and chatted with them for a while, thanking them for their hard work before continuing our journey to the creek.

After a small downhill walk, we heard the enchanting waterfall sound indicating that we were there.