Rhode Creek Falls

Rhode Creek is a small tributary stream which enters Thunder Arm adjacent to the Colonial Creek Campground and the Thunder Arm Bridge along the North Cascades Highway. The stream has occasionally given spats of grief having washed rocky debris over the road but is otherwise not a feature of note. However not far upstream lies this impressive hidden fall which plunges into a very narrow canyon that extends several hundred feet downstream and hides the falls from view unless standing at its foot. The falls drop 153 feet in two leaps, the main fall a 136 foot in a near free-fall, which dashes over bright orange bedrock with a small blue-tinted pool at its base, followed by 17 feet of cascades as the creek tumbles from the pool over rough bedrock along the canyon's floor. Adjacent to the falls is a seemingly active slide chute which has dumped plenty of loose rocks and boulders into the streambed. Considering the potentially unstable geology of the area, we suggest being very wary of your surroundings if you choose to visit. Rhode Creek is a rather small stream, draining from a narrow basin of about two-thirds of a square mile that forms on the north side of Colonial Peak. While the southern most part of the basin does run up against sheer cliffs which will promote retention of snow pack and a slower melt period, the small area feeding the falls will result in its impressiveness decreasing considerably during the later months of the season, potentially being reduced to a trickle during exceptionally dry summers.