Mud Creek Canyon Falls
So what happens when you have a 200+ foot waterfall dropping off a 14,179 foot mountain? Well, let me tell you. It is a little overwhelming, that’s what. The mountain makes the waterfall look like a piddly little cascade, that’s what. It makes that small 5 footer on Squaw Creek look huge in comparison, that’s what.
If Mud Creek Canyon Falls were anywhere else, it would be a monster of a waterfall. But against the looming backdrop of Mt. Shasta, it is almost insignificant. See my below photo to get a better idea of what this waterfall looks like. The one above was shot at 400mm from across the canyon.
It is a long and rough drive out to the Clear Creek trailhead in the Mt. Shasta Wilderness. As I got closer and closer, there was more and more snow on the road. But it was not enough to stop my big SUV. I thought that I might find too much snow on the trail but it was really no trouble. The thing about this hike was that I was not at all prepared for it. I only thought of doing this hike the day before; with all the snow melting right now, it occurred to me that this waterfall might actually be flowing nicely at this time of year. But I had left all my appropriate hiking books back in Folsom, so I had no idea where to go, or how far of a hike it was. I did a search on the internet though, and I found good enough directions to the trailhead. But I found differing opinions on how long the hike was. From the info I found, it seemed that it was about a 3 mile hike at the most. I figured that I would just hike for an hour and if I found the waterfall, great, if not, then I’d turn back. I found the waterfall pretty easily and it was only about a 1 mile hike, and quite easy. The drive out to the trailhead was harder than the hike to the falls.
The view of Mud Creek Canyon Falls is from across the canyon. It is a spectacular view of the mountain and waterfall, but it is a long way away. There is certainly no easy way that I know of to get closer to the waterfall. It would be an extremely steep descent from the Clear Creek trail, then a steep ascent back up Mud Creek Canyon. This would also be quite dangerous as well. It sure would be nice to get closer, if I could figure out a way to do it.
The glaciers that you can see here at this viewpoint are called Konwakiton Glacier and Mud Creek Glacier. The very interesting thing about these and the other 5 glaciers on Mt. Shasta is that despite all the global warming going on, the glaciers on Shasta are actually increasing, not decreasing. They are the only known glaciers in the continental U.S. that are increasing. This is definitely strange to me and doesn’t really make sense. It is not as if northern California has been particularly colder than usual in recent years.
Here’s another long distance view:
