Big Creek Falls

Big Creek is a small tributary to the North Fork Snoqualmie River found just inside the private Snoqualmie Tree Farm near North Bend. The falls drop a total of 116 feet in five distinct steps. The upper two drops, falling in a jumbled cascade of 22 feet, then in a veiling hybrid horsetail/plunge type fall of 53 feet, occur essentially back-to-back such that they appear to be one inter-connected drop. The remaining tiers, a 21 foot plunge which is half-covered in logs, followed by smaller drops of 5 and 15 feet as the stream exits the small alcove harboring the falls are situated a bit further down and lend to a more stair-step appearance of the formation as a whole. That the falls are situated on private timberland, two factors come into play. First, the slope above and to the west of the falls was clearcut sometime between 2012 and 2013. While this is not visible from the bottom of the canyon, its affects are. There are crumbly, exposed dirt slopes all along the creek downstream of the falls, and numerous logs which have fallen into the creek around the falls which partially obstruct small sections of the falls. With the destabilized soil above, some of the trees left lining the canyon could potentially become destabilized themselves and fall into the canyon as well. Second, access to the Snoqualmie Tree Farm has been rather tenuous in the past. The property was recently sold to a new owner, and as of March 2016 there has not yet been any indication that non-motorized access is restricted or would require permits of any sort, but this may change in the future. Please respect any signs you may encounter which indicate recreation is not permitted without permission.