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canyonwalker) wrote2023-09-11 09:33 pm
canyonwalker) wrote2023-09-11 09:33 pm
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Falls Creek Falls, part 2
North Cascades Travelog #13
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 11:15am.
Have I mentioned I'm glad we bailed out on hiking Falls Creek Trail yesterday afternoon and came back this morning when we were well rested? Yeah, I've said that twice already. As we started up the trail this morning the hike was easy at first, to the first falls, then got significantly steeper. Yes, first falls; it turns out there are actually several falls on Falls Creek in this canyon where pluges down through a rocky ridge. And after the first one they take a bit more effort to get to.
This falls into a deep grotto came after the first steep uphill stretch. The trail past here veered away from the canyon. We spotted an obvious use trail partway back down into the canyon and followed it to where we could see a waterfall between the trees. The waterfall did not disappoint.
Back on the main trail we climbed ever higher up the hillside. At this point (photo above) we were well above the water level in the canyon and could see the mountaintop. We could also see the burn area from a wildfire a few years ago. The scars of the burn make it starkly beautiful.
As high as we seem to be at this point there was still one more really steep part before we'd see the upper falls.
We huffed and puffed up one more hill to reach this overlook point. Here three of the drops in the upper falls area are visible. There's a fourth right below these that's under the rock ledge. They don't photograph well because of the steep angle from up here.
We looped around a bit to the right to get a better falls of the uppermost tier.
This is basically the top of Falls Creek though not the top of the trail. The trail continues up from here over one more hill that forms the canyon wall and then drops back down to creek level in a high meadow. At least that's what I figure from studying the contour map. One hiker in a group that was near us continued up toward the top; everyone else agreed with my map reading skill and headed back down from here.
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 11:15am.
Have I mentioned I'm glad we bailed out on hiking Falls Creek Trail yesterday afternoon and came back this morning when we were well rested? Yeah, I've said that twice already. As we started up the trail this morning the hike was easy at first, to the first falls, then got significantly steeper. Yes, first falls; it turns out there are actually several falls on Falls Creek in this canyon where pluges down through a rocky ridge. And after the first one they take a bit more effort to get to.
This falls into a deep grotto came after the first steep uphill stretch. The trail past here veered away from the canyon. We spotted an obvious use trail partway back down into the canyon and followed it to where we could see a waterfall between the trees. The waterfall did not disappoint.
Back on the main trail we climbed ever higher up the hillside. At this point (photo above) we were well above the water level in the canyon and could see the mountaintop. We could also see the burn area from a wildfire a few years ago. The scars of the burn make it starkly beautiful.
As high as we seem to be at this point there was still one more really steep part before we'd see the upper falls.
We huffed and puffed up one more hill to reach this overlook point. Here three of the drops in the upper falls area are visible. There's a fourth right below these that's under the rock ledge. They don't photograph well because of the steep angle from up here.
We looped around a bit to the right to get a better falls of the uppermost tier.
This is basically the top of Falls Creek though not the top of the trail. The trail continues up from here over one more hill that forms the canyon wall and then drops back down to creek level in a high meadow. At least that's what I figure from studying the contour map. One hiker in a group that was near us continued up toward the top; everyone else agreed with my map reading skill and headed back down from here.