Falls Creek (Upper & Lower)

Activity Notes

6.3 miles with 1500 feet gain. Moderate pace through a cool forest to lovely waterfalls. Lunch near the top.

Meet at the MMC at 9AM. We will carpool from there (for vaccinated participants). 130 miles round trip. NW forest pass of senior pass required at trailhead.

Falls Creek Falls, a triple plunge of 335 total feet, is one of the most scenic waterfall destinations in the Pacific Northwest. The falls are picturesque even during the summer and become an impressive, roaring, and misty cascade during the wet season. While a trip on the Falls Creek Falls Trail #152A to view the lower two tiers of the waterfall is short and also very popular (see the Falls Creek Falls Hike), a longer hike to the rim above the falls gives you glimpses of the upper tier and takes you along the much less traveled Falls Creek Trail #152, which you can also use to make a quiet loop back to the parking area.

A wide trail leads into the forest to the left of the restrooms. After 75 yards, you’ll come to a junction marked for a “horse camp”: this will be your return point to close the loop hike, but to get to the waterfall, keep right. The lower elevation forest here is composed of Douglas-fir, hemlock, and western red-cedar with a carpet of Oregon grape, salal, and red huckleberry. Soon you’ll be hiking along pretty Falls Creek, overhung with deciduous big-leaf maples and alders, as it drops among mossy boulders. The trail proceeds above the narrow gorge carved by the creek. In the fall, you may notice yellowing larch trees among the evergreens: the larch is our only conifer that is deciduous. About 0.4 miles from the trailhead, cross the narrow gorge on a suspension bridge and continue along the north bank of the creek.

The stream is still in view as the trail hugs a steep slope among large Douglas-firs with a number of Pacific yew trees in the understory. Cross a rocky draw and keep rising as the trail moves away from the creek. Pass the junction with the connector trail that will take you up to the Falls Creek Trail after you’ve visited the waterfall. The trail crosses a steel bridge over a gully of mossy boulders and then passes along a steep talus slope held together by vegetation. You’ll hike under a dripping cliff and turn a corner to get your first sighting of Falls Creek Falls. Look for tree casts in the lava outcroppings above. The trail drops and then rises to a bouldery overlook of the falls. The lowest tier of the falls plunges 90 feet into a dark amphitheater. Above them, the pretty middle section splashes in multiple streams down a rock face and cascades below. The very top of the uppermost section of the falls, a 110-foot veil waterfall, is only just visible from this vantage point.

After you’ve had you fill of this majestic scene, return to the junction with the connector trail. This short rooty trail winds steeply up the slope in an understory of vine maple, Oregon grape, and salal. A sign at the junction with the Falls Creek Trail designates it as a “primitive trail” with no horses or bikes permitted.

Turn right at the junction, and gradually traverse up a steep slope of tall Douglas-firs with mossy cliffs above. Vanilla leaf, pipsissewa, and twin flower form the forest carpet. Once the trail levels, look for a path leading right where the trail braids. This will take you out to a rim top viewpoint with a makeshift bench offering a view to the middle and upper tiers of Falls Creek Falls, which are partially screened by trees. South Butte looms across the valley. You can follow a user trail to your right along the cliff edge to get a slightly better view of the upper tier.

Return to the main trail and continue through a quiet Douglas-fir/hemlock forest. In a flat area, look for a path that leads between two trees out to a clifftop viewpoint with a campfire circle that looks down the Falls Creek valley. A steep scramble trail down will take you to the lip of Falls Creek Falls’ upper tier, with a view of the beautiful creek upstream. Back up at the viewpoint, you can take a trail above the creek to rejoin the Falls Creek Trail, turning left to finish the hike. (The Falls Creek Trail continues about another seven miles from here up to the Falls Creek Horse Camp - see the Falls Creek Trail Hike)

This time stay on the Falls Creek Trail when you get to the junction with the connector trail. The trail traverses down the slope, crossing several dry rocky gullies. In places, thimbleberry crowds the trail. Once the slope becomes shallower, you’ll proceed in and out of gullies in a younger forest with a few large old Douglas-firs. A spur leads left for a view of Falls Creek. Hike into a bottomland where Falls Creek braids around cobbled islands of alder. In a carpet of salal and Oregon grape, reach an unmarked junction, you’ll bear left. (The trail leading right goes to an abandoned road.)

Cross a wide footbridge to reach a junction. The trail to the right leads to the old horse trailhead, now at the end of a decommissioned section of road. Keep left to wind through the woods and return to Falls Creek at the alder islands. It’s a short distance from here to the junction with the Falls Creek Falls Trail near the trailhead.