Whispering Falls

From Pemberton, take Highway 99 north to the small town of Mount Currie, then as Highway 99 makes a sharp right toward Lillooet, continue straight on Birkenhead River Road, following signs pointing to D'arcy and Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park. Continue for just over 23 kilometers to the fourth crossing of the railroad tracks, then immediately after the crossing, make a hard right onto Gates Creek Road. Follow Gates Creek Road for about 400m to where it begins to parallel the shore of Gates Lake, where views looking across the lake at the falls can be had where gaps in the trees allow.Whispering Falls is an often overlooked waterfall near Pemberton Pass where Landsborough Creek drops into the valley over a nearly sheer cliff. The falls can only be viewed at a distance, so an exact measurement of its height has not yet been established, but topographic data suggests a drop of around 75-80 meters. Below the falls the creek has a long, steep runout down a talus slope, and upstream of the falls the creek remains steep, cascading among thick brush. From certain points along the D'arcy Road a smaller upper falls can be seen further upstream from the top of the falls, however this upper drop is separated by nearly 400 linear meters of distance, and therefore should be considered a separate waterfall and not part of Whispering Falls itself. Landsborough Creek drains from a small, steep basin on the south side of Birkenhead Peak which covers an area of approximately 2.8 square kilometers (1 square mile). There is no permanent snow or ice which feeds into the creek, but as the basin runs all the way up to the 2500 meters summit of Birkenhead Peak, a substantial winter snow pack is typically present high up in the drainage to ensure a good flow throughout the spring and early summer months, with peak flow typically occurring between early May and late June. By late August however, expect to see the volume of the stream reduced considerably, potentially to the point of running dry, but there is a good chance that a small volume of water will remain present all year. As the falls have to be viewed at a distance of over a kilometer away however, unless there is at least a modest flow of water present in the creek, the falls may be difficult to see.Whispering Falls likely gets its name as a function of its unassuming and overlooked nature. Though Landsborough Creek can produce a modest flow during the spring months, because of the topography of the valley, the sound of the falls is often (if not always) muffled to simple ambient noise, and may even be partially down out by the echoing roar of nearby Place Creek Falls during the spring and early summer months.