Synopsis: A hike deep into an alpine valley. For panoramic views, select the Golden Overlook option below.
Access: From the lights in Golden, drive south on Highway 95 to the hamlet of Nicholson. Turn right on the Nicholson Loop Road, go past the Southside Store, and turn right on Canyon Creek Road. Cross the Columbia River and take the left fork. Just before the end of the road, turn left on the 12 Mile Creek FSR. Set your odometer to 0 here, and it will match the posted signs.
At 1.9 km, stay straight on the left fork. At 6.2 km, turn right. At 7.2 km, follow the curve right. (The 7 km sign is just after this curve. It's out by a bit.) At 7.4 km, curve left. At 7.7 km, watch out for a hole in the road. At 8.5 km stay right. There are two very rough spots on steep hills between 9 km and 10 km. High clearance is a good idea here. At 10.3 km, keep right. The left fork goes to the Flattop Mountain trail.
The road curves back to the north and crosses four avalanche paths. There may be water flowing across the road at the first avalanche path, so check to see if you want to drive through it. At 14.2 km, the road turns up the 12 Mile Creek drainage. Follow the road to the very end, at 16.3 km, and park on the landing.
Trailhead: The trail begins in the northwest corner of the landing. Look for flagging tape. Once you find it, the trail is obvious, and it descends quickly to the creek.
Trail: From the landing, drop down to the creek. Cross the first creek on the log with planks conveniently attached. If the log across the second creek doesn't leave you with warm and fuzzy feelings, scout around. I use a wide, stable and fairly new log about 30 metres downstream from the flagging tape. You will need to bushwhack downstream (easy) and then back upstream (brutal).
After crossing the creek, the trail rises steeply until it hits a very large slope of boulders. The trail follows the boulder/tree boundary to the left and up for about 500 metres. There is quite a bit of flagging in this section, but just remember: if you can't see rock, you're too far into the trees, and if you can't touch a tree, you're probably too far into the rock. (If you look closely at the flagging on this steep pitch, you'll see it says "No Work Zone." Somebody has a weird sense of humour.)
When the trail finally leaves most of the rock behind, it merges with the original Certainty Mine trail. The grade flattens off considerably as you turn left and make your way up the valley. (On the descent, you'll need to watch for this point.)
After another 500 metres, the trail enters the forest and splits. There is an old bench carved from a log at this point. The right hand trail goes to Certainty Mine, while the left hand one descends to the lower falls and ultimately leads to the upper falls.
From the junction, follow the right hand trail for another 1.4 km to reach the mine site. The trail will cross several slide paths and creeks as you approach the alpine. The mine itself is on a steep slope.
The mine itself is not much of a destination. An alternative is to take the left hand fork at the bench, and head to the upper falls. A bit of routefinding (and bushwhacking) is necessary here.
The left hand trail slowly descends towards the valley floor, finally reaching it in a large boggy area above the lower falls. The trail is fairly easy to follow, but has some windfall, and crosses two slide paths. Once you reach the boggy area, you have a couple of choices. (If there is a clear path here, I haven't found it.)
You can head across the bog to the rock slope at the other end. (Not recommmended.) You can try to follow a very faint trail that skirts the bog on the north side, at the base of the hill. Or, you can head up the hill on the right and find a game trail through the timber.
In any case, work your way to the back end of the bowl, and you'll find yourself at the bottom of the spectacular upper falls, about 1.5 km past the trail junction (and about 15 metres higher.) It is possible to get to the top of the falls by climbing the scree gully to the south of the falls. A tip: Once you reach the fork in the stream, cross the right hand branch and get close to the left hand one, where you'll find a trail and the easiest ascent route.
Once you get to milder ground higher up, you will see the trail climb up the hill and enter the topmost bowl. Good views up here.
About 400 metres past the junction with the old trail, the path emerges from forest into an avalanche gully filled with small trees. Turn right and thrash your way up this gully. If you guess right on your route selection, there will be very little bushwhacking. Which is good, because you'll need your energy for the top part. It is bloody steep. Nothing technical, nothing fancy, just one foot in front of the other (at a considerably higher elevation.) The view up top is worth it. Stay off the cornices. You've come too far to die here.
Cautions:
NOTE about that north side trail: What's with the "original" Certainty Mine trail? Good question. It runs along the north side of the creek, has a constant, fairly gentle grade (it was built to skin ore out from the mine, though I understand that never actually happened) and is well constructed. So why isn't it used?
The main reason is the bottom end of the trail is utterly buried in windthrown trees and is currently impassable.
Of course, because it has a gentler grade, the north access trail is much longer than the south access one. One the other hand, the access road is only half as long.