Soo Falls

Take Highway 99 either north from Whistler or south from Pemberton for 15-1/2 km to the Soo River Forest Service Road (it's roughly equidistant from both towns). Follow the Soo River FSR for 3.3km to a major fork in the road. Keep right, cross the Soo River immediately below a small dam, and continue for another 12.2 km to the parking area for the Soo Falls Recreation Site on the left side of the road. Ignore all forks that branch to the right after crossing the river. Note that as of May 2018 the road was in poor condition after the first 3-4 km, and several small washouts were present along the last 2 km of road before the parking area, so it may be necessary to walk part of the way. Find the trail at the right corner of the parking lot and follow it through the woods for approximately 300m until the roar of the falls is plainly evident to the right. The trail leads to the river below the falls and doesn't provide views of the falls directly, so a short bushwhack will be necessary in order to see the actual waterfall. Be wary that the logs gathered around the falls are exceedingly slick, and should only be climbed on with extreme care.Soo Falls is one of the few free-flowing large river waterfalls which can be accessed with relative ease in the Lower Mainland portion of British Columbia. Here, the Soo tumbles over a two-stepped fall which drops approximately 30-35 meters in all, with a swirling cauldron-like pool separating the two drops. The upper tier tumbles about 10 meters in a stout rectangular cascade, ejecting a massive plume of spray as it thunders into the basin. The lower tier then cascades an additional 14 meters in side-by-side chutes, with the majority of the water funneling down the right channel. Because the Soo River is sourced in multiple large glaciers, the water is heavily leaden with silt. The spray ejected from the falls in turn retains a significant amount of silt, and when it settles on the adjacent rocks and logs, it's coated the surface with a fine layer of dust where the water is able to evaporate, and a very slick clay-like coating where the moisture persists that makes navigating the rocks around the falls quite treacherous. The Soo River is the largest tributary to the Green River (and is actually considerably larger than the Green River where the two streams merge), draining from an area of approximately 200 square kilometers (75 square miles). The vast majority of the river originates from the melt of at least nine distinct glaciers within the Pemberton Icefield, none of which seem to be uniquely named. The largest glacier feeding the river is of considerable size, stretching nearly seven kilometers in length. The large volume of ice present in the drainage ensures a healthy and consistent flow in the Soo River throughout the summer months, regardless of the rate of seasonal snow melt, and the volume of the falls should remain consistent as a result, with stronger flows occurring with warmer temperatures.