Leon Turnbull Photography

I had a thought that it would be neat to try to get to Deadhorse Falls in the winter. It would be very cool with all the snow and ice around the falls (and hopefully, the waterfall would be flowing as well). What I wasn’t sure was how far we could drive on the unplowed dirt roads before we had to walk the rest of the way to the waterfall.

My friend Brian came along for the journey, and his dog, Duke (plus my dog, Kaya). We drove as far as we could, then came to a stop 4 miles from the waterfall. That meant it would be an 8 mile hike there and back through the snow. I was up for the hike, but I wasn’t sure Brian was so keen on that long of a hike. But he agreed to go for it, nonetheless. The dogs had a grand old time tromping through the snow. Kaya is an old pro at these hikes, but Duke had never hiked so far in his life. But he did very well keeping up with Kaya. We were able to follow tracks for most of the way until the last mile. Then we put on our snowshoes to hike the last part up to the falls.

Once we got up near the waterfall, it is a very steep descent down into the canyon. Not so bad in the summer, but a bit treacherous in the winter. Once again, I stood for awhile pondering the situation. There has to be a way down there. I didn’t hike 4 miles through the snow to be stopped here! Finally, I found an easy way down. Even the dogs were able to get down to the bottom without any difficulty.

Deadhorse Falls is a difficult waterfall to photograph. The angles are funny because it is such a tall waterfall (60 ft.), and you have to essentially shoot it right at the base of the falls, looking up at it. With snow around, it is even harder to photograph.

After photographing the waterfall, we took the very long slow 4 mile trek back out. Was it worth it? Brian would probably say no, but I thought it was a really nice hike through the snow, even if the waterfall wasn’t flowing fabulously. Would I do it again? Probably not, but who knows for sure.