Upper Chinook Creek Falls

As Chinook Creek cascades down from its source in Tipsoo Lake, it drops over many waterfalls, each of which get progressively taller and more significant than the last. The fifth falls down from the pass, which we are referring to simply as Upper Chinook Creek Falls, is a three-tiered drop of 92 feet in all, with a nearly sheer leap of 61 feet kicking off, followed by less steep cascades of 6 and 24 feet each. The base of this waterfall is situated only about 400 feet upstream from the top of Chinook Creek Falls (the tallest falls along the creek by a wide margin), but is isolated enough to be thought of as its own entity. At this point along its course, Chinook Creek is sustained entirely by snow melt from the Chinook and Cayuse Pass areas. Though the creek technically heads in Tipsoo Lake, the lake is not large enough to ensure a stained flow throughout the summer and the outlet will sometimes dry out as the water level drops. This means that Chinook Creek itself behaves almost as a seasonal stream at this point - though it rarely seems to actually go dry. In following, Upper Chinook Creek Falls is not terribly noteworthy a waterfall beyond the beginning of August, but because it's relatively easy to access it may still be worth investigating if one can confirm an adequate flow is present in the creek where it crosses Highway 123.This waterfall has not been previously recognized by name, and in our effort to come up with a title for reference we felt it was best suited to call it after the creek since there are no obvious standout features. However, as we had previously referred to the next falls downstream as Upper Chinook Creek Falls, we had to adjust the naming conventions of two other falls along the creek accordingly - the big falls immediately downstream (formerly Upper Chinook Creek Falls) are now Chinook Creek Falls, and the falls 1/3 mile upstream of the confluence of Deer, Chinook and Kotsuck Creeks is now Lower Chinook Creek Falls.