Brisco Falls

Take Highway 95 to the town of Brisco, located about 30 kilometers north of Radium Hot Springs. In Brisco, turn west on Brisco Road and cross the Columbia River. Continue on Brisco Road for 4.8 kilometers and park just past the bridge over the Templeton River where the road forks. Look for an unmarked but obvious trail into the bushes that drops down to the river and heads upstream. The trail is clearly user-maintained, featuring several makeshift boardwalks of dubious stability to bypass washouts and deep pools along the stream (worst case scenario, you'll have to wade through potentially waist deep water). The falls are only 150 meters upstream from the road, but can't be seen until wrapping around a small cliff that juts out into the river.Brisco Falls is a surprisingly scenic waterfall found along the Templeton River as it descends down a narrow gorge near its confluence with the Columbia River. The falls consist of at least three distinct drops, however only the lowermost part of the falls is visible from the gorge at the base of the falls due to the orientation of the cliffs and tall forest cover in the area. The visible portion of the falls cascades just a hair over 20 meters down a scenic veiling fall at the head of a deep wooded glen, but the overall height of the falls may very well be as much as 60 meters in all (further surveys will have to be conducted to confirm the upper tiers), and a smaller and completely separate upper falls appears likely to be found about 400m further upstream. Because of the narrow and very sheltered nature of the glen where the lower part of the falls are located, a high volume of spray gets funneled downstream at the end of the trail, which makes viewing the falls both exceptionally refreshing on a hot summer day, but also frustratingly difficult to photograph thanks to the constant barrage of mist. The Templeton River has a rather lopsided and oblong drainage basin which extends from the high peaks of the Septet Range of the Purcell Mountains, and runs across a broad section of the bench on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench which is pockmarked with numerous lakes (a few of which drain into the river). The basin covers an area of about 72 square kilometers (27 square miles) and features two small glaciers feeding the headwaters of the Templeton, ensuring a consistent flow throughout the summer months.The falls are colloquially named after the nearby town of Brisco. We had previously listed this entry as Templeton River Falls having not been aware of the local name used for the falls.