Falls Creek Falls

After finding out that there’s a hike and an incredible 100′ waterfall on the backside of Big Boy/Cedar Rock Mountain, I knew I had to check it out!

I talked my leader friend Becky into it – well actually, she’s pretty much game for anything so I didn’t have to do much talking even though it’s listed as a short 1.2 miles but difficult hike.  We hiked this trail on a chilly but crystal clear late October morning.

Falls Creek Falls is part of the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area and joins up with the Hospital Rock Trail (which is even more strenuous) at the falls.  There are also three geocaches along the path.  At the closest part of the trail, WaBak  is probably about a half mile away as the crow flies.  Here’s a contour map: 

This hike is definitely every bit as difficult as suggested.  It’s very steep in places – to the point where you have to grab hold with your hands to pull yourself up.  But it’s a neat one and worth the workout.  There are huge boulders and rock formations scattered throughout the trail.  Here are a few pictures.  I forgot my real camera, so I had to use my phone instead.  They are a little blurrier (more blurry?) than I would like.

We finally arrived to the part of the hike where you can either go down to the base of the falls or supposedly go up to the top according to some trail descriptions.  I really wanted to go up to see if I could get a nice picture of WaBak or Big Boy Mountain.  There was a kind of a path there but we didn’t see any blazes.  I scrambled up about 20 feet before saying forget it – maybe next time if there’s a real trail somewhere.  So instead we went down, down, down.

We got to the base (be very careful BTW), and while it was very beautiful, it didn’t seem as striking as the descriptions made it out to be.  I took a picture of it:

But wait!  There’s more!