Eldridge Falls

Take Highway 542 to the town of Glacier, north of Mount Baker. From the Ranger Station just across the Glacier Creek bridge at the east end of town, continue east along the highway for seven-tenths of a mile and turn right onto Glacier Creek Road, following signs to Heliotrope Ridge. The trailhead is found another 8 miles up Glacier Creek Road - keep straight at all major junctions - and is well indicated by the large parking area and restrooms (and likely many vehicles). Hiking the trail on foot, proceed for 2.5 miles to a signed junction just after the second major stream ford, indicating the Climbers Camp to the right and the Glacier Vista to the left - head right toward the camp for another 500 feet to where the trees clear and the falls will be visible above and to the right of the trail.Eldridge Falls is one of perhaps as many as a dozen small waterfalls which stream off of the western lobe of the Heliotrope Glacier on Mount Baker. The falls stream down an exposed cliff of volcanic bedrock near the path which ascends the Hogsback to to the climbers camp at the toe of the glacier, streaming 240 feet down in a sinuous series of braids of water. The falls do seem to persist through the summer, but the flow of water present in the stream will be at its peak during days when the temperature creeps up above 80 degrees or more; under cooler weather the snow and ice doesn't melt nearly as quickly and as the stream is sourced almost directly above the falls in said ice, there won't be much water to sustain the falls in such cases. By mid Autumn expect the falls to be reduced to just a trickle.