Ludlow Falls

Just south of the town of Slocan, turn off of Highway 6 onto Gravel Pit Road, following signs pointing to Valhalla Provincial Park. At 3-1/2 kilometers, bear right at the Y junction onto Little Slocan Road (which makes an immediate sharp switchback up the hillside). Continue for 16 kilometers, then bear right onto the Hoder Creek Forest Service Road at another Y junction, continuing to follow signs for Valhalla Provincial Park, specifically for the Drinnon Pass Trail. The falls will be visible across the valley after another 14-1/2 kilometers of travel up the Hoder Creek FSR.Ludlow Falls is a tall horsetail style fall which cascades down a broad slab of granitic bedrock as its unnamed stream tumbles from a basin nestled below numerous rugged peaks of the Selkirk Mountains into the valley of Hodor Creek near the southwestern corner of Valhalla Provincial Park. The falls drop an estimated 100-110 meters (about 350 feet) over a run of about 140 meters (460 feet). There is no developed access up close to this waterfall, however a decommissioned logging road passes within about 250 linear meters of the base of the falls - whether it can be easily accessed or is in good enough condition to hike is not known. The falls are otherwise visible from the Hodor Creek Forest Service Road en route to the Drinnan Pass Trailhead in Valhalla Provincial Park. The basin which produces the stream that forms Ludlow falls covers an area of approximately 4.7 square kilometers, the entirety of which is found at or above an elevation of 1,760 meters (5,800 feet). A small unnamed lake is situated not far upstream from the falls, and three or four small tarns are found scattered throughout the higher elevations in the basin. Aside from a small snow finger or two, there appears to be no permanent ice which feeds into the stream through the year, so the flow of the falls will be primarily dictated by seasonal snow melt. When we surveyed the site in July of 2018 the flow was strong, but likely at the tail end of the melt season. Expect to see the volume of the stream reduced considerably by September in most years.We've found no evidence indicating this waterfall has been recognized by name in any sense, so we've opted to title it after Ludlow Peak, one of the mountains which rings the basin of the creek producing the falls.