Jennings Falls

Jennings Creek produces a fairly unassuming but moderately tall waterfall as it cascades down the side of the Johnson Creek valley near Packwood. The falls are tucked back in a wooded ravine, plunging 162 feet in three steps - first in nearly sheer plunges of about 20 feet, and 93 feet, and then in a horsetail type fall which first plunges then slides after the stream impacts on a sloping rock ledge. Though the falls can be partially seen from Johnson Creek Road, there is no easy way to appreciate them without undertaking at least a little bit of bushwhacking. When we first surveyed the falls around 2000, the narrow gully below the falls was quite scenic and easy to scramble along to the base of the falls. On our most recent visit, we were greeted with a scene of dozens of trees fallen into the ravine and several small landslides produced by the uprooting of trees causing the slopes to destabilize. This has essentially rendered the bottom of the falls unapproachable - the slopes are too steep and crumbly to traverse, and there are too many logs choking the creek to walk up the stream - so only partially obscured vistas of the lower tier are currently possible (and frankly it isn't even worth photographing). The upper tier remains accessible, but only with more considerable effort and some precarious scrambling into the canyon. Jennings Creek is a small stream which is largely dependent on snow melt in order to sustain a respectable flow. By the end of June the volume of water present should be expected to be quite low, reducing further to just a trickle by August in most years (if not sooner).