Leon Turnbull Photography

Fifth time’s a charm, I guess.

Friday seemed like a perfect day to once again try getting to the Lower Traverse Creek Falls. This time I was ready and determined to get down there. I’ve tried four separate times over the past few years, in various ways, and did not make it. Mostly because I was looking for an easier way to get down there. This time, I was going to get down there. The hard way. No turning back this time.

I arrived at the trailhead at 6:30AM, and started trekking down to the upper falls. I noticed that the overgrown brush on the trail seemed to have been cut. Indeed, it was most certainly not nearly so overgrown as when I was here a week ago. Apparently, someone had been down here in the past week with clippers. I guess that is a good thing. As I approached the upper falls, though, I became a bit perturbed. More trash. Beer cans. I was just here a week ago and cleaned up all the trash, and now in less than a week, it is trashed again! Could it be the mysterious person with the clippers? Perhaps. Whoever it was, certainly irked me.

Anyway, I climbed down to the base of the falls, and noticed that Traverse Creek Falls was in single segment mode now. I was expecting that, after a week of no rain. It was still flowing decent though, and I felt a trip down to the lower falls was still in order for this day. So off I went.

The going was not too bad at first. I started off following the creek bed. The toughest thing is watching your footing on the slippery rocks. I eventually picked up a trail. I remembered this trail from when I went down to Bear Creek Falls a couple years ago. It seems pretty very well defined now, but it is a lot tougher going, because it is still overgrown and there are a lot of up and downs. But clearly, quite a few people had been on it. The trail eventually goes quite high above the creek, and I remembered that it just kind of ended once you get down to Bear Creek. The same was true on this day. As I approached Bear Creek, the trail petered out. I decided to head back down to the creek level and came out at the Bear Creek confluence. From there, I continued down the creek bed. From Bear Creek, the going was fairly easy. Until you come to the dead end. Which happens to be just before the waterfall.

At this certain point, the cliffs on each side of the creek converge into a narrow channel. There is no way to continue at the creek level. Unless you want to swim. I didn’t realize the waterfall was just down from here. I thought it was actually a lot further downstream. Nonetheless, I found a path heading up the cliff. Straight up. Well, I didn’t come all the way down here for nothing. So up the cliff I went. And up. And up. I eventually got up to a point and found the “trail” again, traversing across the cliff. As I traversed downstream, I saw the waterfall far below me. As I said, I was surprised to find it here. I was sure it was much further downstream. But I was certainly happy to have it here. Now I just needed to get down to it.

I approached the top of the waterfall, and found it to be very cliffy. Far too cliffy for my liking. There was a rope going down from near the top of the falls to the bottom. I looked at it closely, but it just seemed a bit too crazy. There were not very many footholds down the cliff. I’m sure the young and daring would go down here with no difficulty, but that is not me. So how could I get down, then? It seemed to me the best option was back up to the “trail” and try to come around the cliff section downstream. That plan worked great. Along the way, I managed to lose my hiking pole. One minute I had it, scrambling through brush, and the next I didn’t. But I didn’t know what happened. Did I leave it back at the top of the falls? I was almost at the bottom, so I continued on without my pole, planning to look for it on my way back (and fortunately, I did find it on my way back – I had somehow just dropped it in the brush).

I worked my way down to the stream and then back up to the falls. Yes! After all these years, I finally made it to Lower Traverse Creek Falls. It is a pretty one, though much smaller than I thought. I had been told it was 40 ft. high. Not even close. I measured it to be 22 ft. high. Smaller than the upper falls. Nonetheless, it is a beauty. And in such a remote, hard to get to location. And yet, obviously many people had been here before. There were even ropes hanging off some trees, that kids had set up for swinging off into the pool below the falls  in the summer. It took me a full 2 hours to hike down here from the upper falls. It was a very tough hike.  I can’t really imagine that kids would come all the way here to swim in the summer. But there it is.

Eventually, I made my way back up the cliff, and worked my way back up the creek bed. I stopped at the Bear Creek confluence to rest. I thought about going up to see Bear Creek Falls while I was down here. The light was still good, being an overcast day. But I was really quite tired from my hike, and I still was only half way back. I decided to skip Bear Creek for another day. And that was a good decision. By the time I got back to the car, my legs were really cramping, and I was totally exhausted. But I did manage to pick up those beer cans and some other trash I found along the way. Perhaps it will stay clean now for more than a week, this time.