High Falls

Follow the Squamish Valley FSR for 40km from the Sea-to-Sky Highway to the High Falls Creek bridge and park on its south side. The trail is found 100m further up the road. The trail climbs extremely steeply for 2km to the falls, using chains and rope ladders in places to assist in getting up cliffs. In many places the trail traverses precariously close to the edge of the canyon, so once again exercise lots of caution.High Falls is a waterfall which many will have a love/hate relationship with - you'll love it because the falls and gorge are impressive beyond words, but you'll hate it because no matter how much effort you put into looking for a view which does the falls justice, there simply is no way to see the waterfall in entirety. High Falls Creek is a tributary of the Squamish River flowing from Tricouni Peak to the north. Where the creek hits the Squamish Valley it has carved a narrow, sinuous gorge that frankly puts most of the slot canyons in the Canadian Rockies to shame. The falls begin by flowing through a narrow slot and plunging 33 feet over a double-punchbowl set of falls into a dark mossy alcove. The creek then exits via a crack no more than 2-3 meters wide and falls down a three-stepped fall which has been mostly obstructed by a truck-sized boulder that has wedged itself into the canyon. Immediately below here, the creek turns to the left and plunges 376 feet into a staggeringly narrow and deep defile, which one may peer down into but rarely can see the bottom of. The falls drop a total of 547 feet, which is a hard figure to grasp considering how difficult it is to see most of the waterfall, but can be illustrated by the massive size of the cliffs lining the opposite wall of the gorge. From the first viewpoint of the falls, one can shimmy over the edge of a well-placed rock to peer down to the bottom of the gorge over 300 feet straight down and still strain your neck looking up at the top of the cliffs looming almost 300 feet further above. As much emphasis can be placed on the scale of this canyon as possible but it is simply not possible to grasp its immensity without seeing it in person.High Falls Creek was named for this waterfall, though it isn't known when the name fell into common usage. Tony Greenfield's book "Waterfalls of British Columbia" incorrectly lists this entry as High Creek Falls.