Mesachie Falls

Bear Creek is the first major tributary to the Baker River (though technically Lake Shannon at this point) which the Baker Lake Road crosses. The stream is quite unassuming at the bridge, but about a half mile downstream it begins a tumultuous tumble, dropping over four major waterfalls in a little over half a mile. The second waterfall, a loud cascading mess of water skipping down a wide incline of bedrock for a total of 106 vertical feet, is both the tallest and the most difficult to access. The cascades are plainly audible from the nearby user trail but cannot be seen at all and are only accessed by scrambling down muddy slopes and through thick brush comprised largely of all things thorny. This is most definitely not a waterfall to seek out unless you enjoy getting dirty, scratched, poked and generally abused by nature.Bear Creek appears to have been incorporated into no less than three hydro stations along its descent to Lake Shannon, all of which were likely in operation in the early years of the 20th century and were abandoned when the Lake Shannon Dam was completed in 1925. Because of the significant development in the area, there is a good possibility that this waterfall was named at one point, but any such supporting information has yet to surface. In the interim, the name Mesachie has been proposed by local waterfall hunter Aaron Young. Mesachie is a Chinook jargon word with seemingly dozens of meanings, but the general concept is of "bad spirits".