Unnamed Waterfall

This is one of a number of waterfalls along the unnamed branch of Coal Creek which originates in Devil Lake north of the Mountain Loop Highway near Big Four. The falls drop in two steps for a total of 51 feet where the creek runs across and through an interesting exposed cliff band which stretches in a straight line for nearly a fifth of a mile, in some places rising as much as 100 feet above the ground below. The stream has eroded a notch through part of the cliff where it tumbles down the falls. The upper drop is a cascading style fall which drops 23 feet, and the lower is a sheer plunging fall which drops 28 feet through a notch in the cliff perhaps 10 feet wide. Below the falls the creek cascades down more slides and beneath a massive boulder which has fallen into the streambed, which makes it appear as if the water is emerging from a cave or a mine when viewed from below. The stream producing this waterfall drains from an area approximately seven-tenths of a square mile in size. The stream is shown on maps as originating from Devils Lake, but as the lake is only about 4.3 acres in size, it isn't thought to be a significant contributor to the volume of the stream, and instead most of the flow is dictated by snow melt or precipitation in the basin. Because of this, once the winter snow pack has melted off the volume of the stream will be reduced considerably, potentially to just a trickle in the late summer months.