Pemberton Creek Falls

Pemberton Creek Falls is not at the present time an easy waterfall to find, thanks to the maze of poorly signed trails found in the immediate area, but there is a formal trail leading to it. Take the Sea-to-Sky Highway (99) to the town of Pemberton, then at the stoplight (at the Petro Canada station) turn north onto Pemberton Meadows Road and proceed through town. In 0.8km bear left at the roundabout, cross the railroad tracks, go two blocks, then turn right at the T-intersection, still following Pemberton Meadows Road. Continue for another 500 meters, then turn left onto Eagle Ridge Drive. Follow this road for another 600 meters up the hill to a gate and park so as to not block the gate. On foot, walk the gated gravel road for about 250 meters, staying to left where it forks. When a water tank comes into view, look for a mountain bike path to your left. Hop on to this trail, and continue for maybe 100 meters or so until it crosses over what looks like a washed out road. Turn left here and follow the wash and pick up a fairly obvious path on the opposite side of a boulder filled gulley. The trail is more evident from this point onward; at the subsequent forks ahead you want to take whichever fork leads you closest to the stream, and heads either uphill or upstream - if you find yourself hiking with the creek on your right, you're going the wrong way. After about 1/2 km of moderately steep hiking from the water tank, the trail drops down to the mist-soaked and unguarded viewpoint of the falls.Pemberton Creek Falls is a significant, though quite hidden waterfall found in a deep canyon immediately outside of downtown Pemberton, British Columbia. The falls drop in two stages for approximately 60 meters (we were unable to obtain a definitive measurement on our first survey of the site due to a dead battery), split between two tiers. The upper tier spills over a ledge and creates a pseudo diamond shaped plunging drop, falling approximately 20 meters, and then immediately after the lower tier rolls over a more even ledge with a rounded lip and skips down the cliff face in a uniform horsetail type fall with an ever so slight outward veil as it descends for another 40 meters into a deep canyon. The falls are overlooked from a somewhat precarious natural viewpoint which gets absolutely soaked with spray during the spring and early summer months (quite possibly for the majority of the year). There may be additional falls further upstream in the canyon as well, but access further appears to be about as close to impossible as it gets thanks to the steep, sheer canyon walls. Pemberton Creek drains from a fairly large basin, covering about 27 square kilometers (about 10 square miles), and sources in a large glacier spilling down the east face of Ipsoot Mountain. The glacial melt coupled with the large basin area and the relatively high elevation (as well as the heavy precipitation totals this part of British Columbia receives) ensures copious amounts of spring snow melt fueling a raging torrent in the spring, and when temperatures spike from mid to late summer the swollen glacial melt will ensure that the volume isn't reduced all that much at all. The higher volume of Pemberton Creek actually makes this a more difficult waterfall to photograph, thanks to the heavy spray kicked up from the base of the falls - it may in fact be most advantageous to visit on a cold autumn day to obtain the best photographs.