Whiskeytown Falls

In Redding, follow Highway 299 west towards Eureka for 16 miles, then turn left onto Crystal Creek Road (signed for Whiskeytown Falls). After three and a half miles the parking area for the Mill Creek Trail will be found on the left. From the trailhead, the well-graded trail drops down to cross the West Fork of Crystal Creek, then begins climbing - steeply at times - for the next mile (ignore any spurs that do not look like the main trail). The trail will cross the East Fork of Crystal Creek about 1/4 mile before reaching the base of the falls and will finally end at the falls after 1.6 miles. A steep staircase leads to views of the upper tiers of the falls, but it can be very slick when wet and caution is advised.Whiskeytown Falls is a boastful series of veiling horsetails and cascades found in a deep, wooded valley on the side of Shasta Bally in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The East Fork of Crystal Creek bounds down 180 feet in three primary steps, dropping 71, 58 and 51 feet respectively, twisting counterclockwise as it falls such that the entire falls cannot be seen from any one viewpoint. With the recent rediscovery of this waterfall (see below), the information initially presented about the falls was shown to be grossly inaccurate. At first it was reported the falls were 400 feet tall, which then slowly crept down to estimates of 220 feet. The World Waterfall Database surveyed the falls in July 2009 to find its total drop to be 180 feet, so much of the sensationalism surrounding the discovery of an alleged 400-foot tall waterfall was very overblown. Though this part of California is not known for its precipitation, Shasta Bally is a significant enough mountain that it receives ample snow during the winter to ensure that the stream feeding Whiskeytown Falls flows with substantial force during the spring. At its peak form, the falls create a booming series of cascades which may in the end be worthy of the hype which surrounded this waterfall over its publication, but during the summer months the volume of water drops substantially and the falls revert to gentle braids of water streaming down the bulbous cliff.What information has been uncovered points to the chronology of Whiskeytown Falls as follows. The falls were thought to have been first discovered in the 1940s by loggers, but it was never publicized. In 1967, two years after Whiskeytown National Recreation Area was formed, park rangers stumbled upon the falls but opted to keep its location secret in order to prevent it from being overrun. Its existence was passed to other park rangers at the time, but not readily disseminated to future employees, so the number of people who ultimately knew of the falls slowly decreased over the years. In 2004 a park biologist went on a mission to find the falls after hearing about it from elder residents in the area, and upon successfully finding the falls ultimately lead to the construction of a trail and the widespread PR campaign about the "discovery of a new waterfall" which turned out to be quite overblown.