Upper John Pierce Falls

John Pierce Falls is a plainly visible landmark along the North Cascades Highway as it traverses above the Skagit River Gorge, but hidden in a narrow alcove just upstream lies an even better waterfall that few will ever see. Horsetail Creek forms this set of falls by dropping into a narrow alcove in a pretty 117-foot tall narrow veiling horsetail style drop, with a 40-foot upper tier a short distance further upstream. While only about 300 linear feet of stream separates the bottom of this waterfall and the top of John Pierce Falls itself, the two should be considered entirely separate waterfalls due to the fact that there is no location where a view reveals both falls together. The narrow alcove harboring Upper John Pierce Falls preclude easy visibility of the falls, and though accessing the falls is relatively easy the amount of spray which gets funneled out of the canyon during high-water periods makes viewing the falls difficult during the spring and early summer months.