We timed our hike to see the reversing water flow along the rapids and did see this, though we were not as close as we thought we would be thus that part of the hike was a bit underwhelming; however, the hike itself was excellent and had a lot of variety, from lush forests, to more open meadow areas with shrubs, and numerous river views. We did the full loop to include grassy bay, and enjoyed the peacefulness of the bay area. You will run into cruise ship tour groups here, but they seemed to just hike to the rapids lookout, then turn around, forgoing the loop trail to grassy bay, so take that for more solitude. The hike is a lollipop and the "stem" part of the hike before the loop is the portion with the most elevation gain or descent, otherwise the rest of the hike has mostly undulating up/down to flat elevation. If it has been raining, you will encounter mud.
Taxis will take you to the trail head for about $20 one way, you can call them for pickup when you are done, but we got lucky and an empty taxi was just pulling in when we finished our hike. read more