Hiking Snow Creek Falls
May. 19th, 2021 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerInland Empire Travelog #9
Moravia, Idaho - Sat, 15 May 2021. 3:30pm.
After a hit and a partial-miss with finding waterfalls described in our Very Dull Book of Waterfalls guidebook this morning— Copper Creek Falls was a hit, Smith Creek Falls a mostly-miss— we had both a hit and miss with Snow Creek Falls this afternoon. It was a miss in that, once again, the directions in the guidebook were inaccurate. Road names were wrong, turns were missing, and distance measurements were off. But like I wrote in my previous blog, sometimes in losing one thing we find something even better. We drove around looking for where the trail might be and found an even better trail than the one described in the guidebook. This trail would take us to three waterfalls. That was totally a hit.
The trail we found was somewhat popular. In fact, that's part of how we found it. There were 6 or 7 other cars there. By norther Idaho standards the place was mobbed!
A well maintained trail angled down the hillside, gently at first then more steeply. It branched at an unmarked junction. One branch went lower; the other climbed. We took the lower branch first and descended to Lower Snow Creek Falls.
![Lower Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/722801/722801_original.jpg "Lower Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]")
There's almost too much water in waterfalls such as this right now. The water's churning so hard it's hard to appreciate the flow. Not to mention, the spray can be pretty intense. But this is high flow season. The stream are all swollen with snow melt. Yes, there's still snow atop the 5,000' peaks in this area!
We retraced our steps to the forks and climbed the upper branch to Upper Snow Creek Falls.
![Upper Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/723346/723346_original.jpg "Upper Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]")
The upper falls really were hard to appreciate because of the heavy flow. There's a viewing area at the right side of the picture above... but it's hard to see anything from it because of the intense spray blowing from the falls. I found this perch 100' downstream that afforded a calmer view.
A bonus on this trail is that there's actually a third waterfall in between lower and upper. Call it Middle Snow Creek Falls.
![Middle Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/723029/723029_original.jpg "Middle Snow Creek Falls, Idaho [May 2021]")
The trail in this area was very precarious. The formal trail ended at the soaked viewing spot I mentioned above. I picked my way downstream a bit for the second pic. For this third one I was following a very narrow foot trail with steep dropoffs. If I were feeling more adventurous— or foolhardy— I could have pushed on maybe 10' farther to try for a different angle on the falls below me.
Moravia, Idaho - Sat, 15 May 2021. 3:30pm.
After a hit and a partial-miss with finding waterfalls described in our Very Dull Book of Waterfalls guidebook this morning— Copper Creek Falls was a hit, Smith Creek Falls a mostly-miss— we had both a hit and miss with Snow Creek Falls this afternoon. It was a miss in that, once again, the directions in the guidebook were inaccurate. Road names were wrong, turns were missing, and distance measurements were off. But like I wrote in my previous blog, sometimes in losing one thing we find something even better. We drove around looking for where the trail might be and found an even better trail than the one described in the guidebook. This trail would take us to three waterfalls. That was totally a hit.
The trail we found was somewhat popular. In fact, that's part of how we found it. There were 6 or 7 other cars there. By norther Idaho standards the place was mobbed!
A well maintained trail angled down the hillside, gently at first then more steeply. It branched at an unmarked junction. One branch went lower; the other climbed. We took the lower branch first and descended to Lower Snow Creek Falls.
There's almost too much water in waterfalls such as this right now. The water's churning so hard it's hard to appreciate the flow. Not to mention, the spray can be pretty intense. But this is high flow season. The stream are all swollen with snow melt. Yes, there's still snow atop the 5,000' peaks in this area!
We retraced our steps to the forks and climbed the upper branch to Upper Snow Creek Falls.
The upper falls really were hard to appreciate because of the heavy flow. There's a viewing area at the right side of the picture above... but it's hard to see anything from it because of the intense spray blowing from the falls. I found this perch 100' downstream that afforded a calmer view.
A bonus on this trail is that there's actually a third waterfall in between lower and upper. Call it Middle Snow Creek Falls.
The trail in this area was very precarious. The formal trail ended at the soaked viewing spot I mentioned above. I picked my way downstream a bit for the second pic. For this third one I was following a very narrow foot trail with steep dropoffs. If I were feeling more adventurous— or foolhardy— I could have pushed on maybe 10' farther to try for a different angle on the falls below me.
