Morning Star Falls

Driving east along US 20, enter the town of Marblemount. At a bend in the highway (in the middle of town), keep straight across the bridge spanning the Skagit River, when Highway 20 makes a sharp left. This is the Cascade River Road, which ends in 23 miles, at the Cascade Pass trailhead. Proceed for about 21.8 miles from US 20, about 4.2 miles from the boundary of North Cascades National Park, to Morning Star Creek, which is shortly after Boston Creek. The bottom 25 feet of the falls is in plain view. A sliver of the top of the falls can be seen high up on the mountain. For a long distance view of more of the upper part of the falls, turn around, and drive back down the road for about ¾ of a mile, to the double sharp switchback (where the road is paved), and look up the basin, on the left, and you will see part of the falls beneath Sahale Peak.Like all the other streams in the basin of the North Fork Cascade River, Morning Star Creek makes a long, precipitous descent down the mountainside, ending just above the Cascade River road. Prior to the winter / spring of 2002, the falls were completely obstructed by the copious brush which flourishes along alpine streams and avalanche chutes. However, due to several massive avalanches during the winter of 2002, and the floods of October 2003, the majority of the brush around Morning Star Creek got wiped out, and the bottom of the falls are now quite clear to passers by. In July of 2004, I revisited the falls, and noticed that the very top of the falls can be seen above the very bottom of the falls (the small white dot on the top left in the picture above). I was positive the falls were much bigger than the 25 feet I had previously listed, but this was the final nail in the coffin. The falls appear to drop about 1300 feet, in several long, sliding waterfalls, but like the other nearby falls, the majority can't be seen. However, because Morning Star Creek is nowhere near as large as Boston Creek, it may be possible to simply walk upstream in the creek, to places where the rest of the falls can be easily seen. I don't know how far this may be possible, but it's a feasible option.