Upper Cherry Creek Falls

Starting in the town of Duvall, take Highway 203 north toward Monroe and veer right onto NE Cherry Valley Road just past the junction with NE Woodenville-Duvall Road. Follow NE Cherry Valley Road for 4.2 miles to where it becomes Kelly Road NE and continue south. At 6.6 miles from Highway 203, make a hard left onto NE Stossel Creek Way. After 1.4 miles the pavement ends and a sign announces the entrance to Marckworth State Forest - continue on the gravel extension of the road, for another 6.3 miles (there are several junctions to be mindful of, but most of them are gated, with one at 4.5 miles being the only confusing one since the gate is several hundred feet from the main road - keep left here. Just before the aforementioned 6.3 mile mark the road crosses Cherry Creek and a small 7-foot waterfall can be seen off to the left. Just past this waterfall is a junction in the road with a gate straight ahead - park here so as to not block the gate. On foot now, walk the gated road for just over a mile and a half, keeping right at all junctions, to another bridge spanning Cherry Creek with the falls seen just upstream. Closer views can be had by scrambling up along the creek from a small informal campsite just past the bridge.Cherry Creek pours over a fairly pretty horsetail-type fall of 25 feet just above a logging road which provides easy access. The falls roll over a rounded ledge set amid tall timber and profuse sword fern growth, however in recent years the gully where the falls are situated seems to have collected a large number of fallen trees, which both obscure the falls from totally clear views, and make it a considerably less attractive scene than it used to be. The falls are situated on land managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and accessing the area will require a Discover Pass to avoid a possible parking ticket (even though there are no developed facilities here).