Beaverdale Falls

Beaverdale Falls is a surprisingly significant waterfall along Illinois Creek, a small to moderate tributary to the North Fork Snoqualmie River, where it breaks out of a hanging valley and cascades 141 feet over a blocky granite headwall. The valley both upstream and down of the falls is littered with talus and boulders which have cleaved from the side of Prospectors Ridge. The talus above the falls actually causes the creek to appear to sink underground for a short distance, with the water emerging from the rocks and immediately plunging over the falls. The presence of the talus has also allowed the stream to split into as many as three channels for half of its fall, depending on how heavy the flow is. When we surveyed the falls, all three were flowing well, but it appears that later in the season, only one may remain as the volume of water in the creek is reduced for the summer. Because of how the creek splits into these three channels, it isn't easy to view all of the collective segments at once - it seems that from any given perspective at least one arm of the falls will be obstructed from view.This waterfall is not known to have ever had any sort of recognized name, but given the proximity to the nearby Beaverdale Mine, it wouldn't surprise us if there was an old colloquial title for the falls at some point. For now, we've named it after the mine, which lies about a quarter-mile due south, and 600 feet higher up on Prospectors Ridge - access to it beyond the falls looks to be considerably more difficult than the scramble up to the falls.