Lone Tree Falls

Whitehorse Mountain is one of the most imposing peaks in the North Cascades, looming 6,000 feet over the town of Darrington. The north face of the mountain features two prominent drainages which split the meltwater from the So-Bahli-Ahli Glacier. Snow Gulch is the westernmost of the two drainages, and can be seen prominently from Highway 530, and though several waterfalls can be picked out braiding down the mountainside from the highway, none can be clearly or easily singled out from a distance. Lone Tree Falls is an ancillary waterfall within Snow Gulch itself, draining from a small basin immediately north of its namesake pass on Whitehorse Ridge. The falls cascade steeply down a narrow cleft in the mountainside, potentially for several hundred feet. Only a portion of what is likely a much taller waterfall than impressions let on can be seen from the basin, however. We measured the visible portion of the falls to stand 209 feet tall, with three distinct drops of 47, 74, and 78 feet respectively. Imagery displayed on Google Earth clearly does show additional tiers upstream, but it appears likely that they would be exceedingly difficult to obtain clear views of. Of other note in the area, at the end of the trail to the basin the Sam Grabe Mine can be seen. Since the timber supports for the tunnel have long since rotted and collapsed, and the mine is partially flooded, it is highly dangerous to enter the mine - look from the entrance only.Because this waterfall is produced by an entirely separate drainage from neighboring Snow Gulch Falls, we opted to give it its own entry. The name was chosen for Lone Tree Pass, a low saddle on Whitehorse Ridge where the stream originates.