Falls Creek Falls

Falls Creek Falls is a low volume waterfall which can be seen dropping about 150 feet down a two-tiered waterfall directly beneath a small bridge along the roadbed of the former Simpson Timber Railroad which crossed the nearby Vance Creek bridge. The upper tier of the falls makes a nearly clean leap over the upper tier of the falls, dropping into a small pothole scoured into the side of the cliff. The lower tier then pours out of the pothole in an even narrower stream of water as the creek runs down a crack in the rock to the forest floor below. When the stream is flowing at its peak volume, the upper tier of the falls will shoot out from the cliff a moderate amount, turning into a true plunging type drop. However later in the season when the volume is reduced, expect the stream to cling to the side of the cliff more intimately. Falls Creek drains a small basin on the northwest edge of South Mountain which covers an area of about half of a square mile. The terrain is fairly steep and has been heavily logged, which likely means that precipitation will run off quite a bit faster than were it still fully forested. When partially surveyed in February 2018 the streamflow was not terribly significant already, and this had followed several days of heavy rain. We expect that the creek will likely be reduced to a trickle by late spring and will probably dry out entirely during the summer months. This waterfall is located on private timberland and may not be directly accessible without hiking for several miles, depending on what gates are unlocked along the network of roads in the area. Be aware that there are no trails to the falls, and visiting will likely require steep, potentially dangerous scrambling into the canyon at the base of the falls. Our partial survey of the falls in 2018 involved the use of a drone - we did not get close enough to take accurate measurements of the falls' height.