Leon Turnbull Photography

After packing up camp, I ate my breakfast and set out. I had about 9 miles to hike to where I intended to camp that night at Cascade Falls.

There was another group of backpackers hiking along the same trail as I was hiking. We kept passing each other along the trail. I would rest, they would pass me. They would rest, I would pass them. This kept going on ad infinitum and got to the point where it was a bit ridiculous. At least they were not going to the same place that I was going.

The hike was pretty much all uphill, and even though it was not a huge elevation gain, it was very tiring. By the time I got to Cascade Falls, I was spent.

There was no camping at the lower (main) falls, so I kept climbing up the mountain to a spot in between the lower and upper falls. This was where I expected to find my place to camp. You most likely did not know there was an upper falls here, and probably did not even know there was a lower falls here, even though the lower falls is marked on the maps. At the very least I am sure you have not ever seen it or seen any photos of it (I will explain this below). The trail seems to be well maintained but not well traveled (at least, not well traveled on the waterfall section). It is very rocky in places and also very sandy in other places. The sandy part is because of all the mules that go on the trail. They beat up the trail to death, making it very sandy and difficult to hike on. Not to mention all the crap they leave behind that you cannot avoid walking on (pet peeve). I was not sure which I hated more, the sand and mule crap, or the rocky terrain. Believe it or not, I think I prefer the sandy terrain. The rocks just kill my feet horribly.

It was very windy when I arrived at the campsite. I was expecting this, and worried about setting up my tent in the wind. I have a new tent, the Zpacks Duplex. It is expensive, but it saves two pounds. Is it worth two pounds in savings? Well, the jury is still out on that, but the reviews on this tent are very good, and so far I like it. However, it was blowing around like crazy in the wind, much too much for my liking. I read about a trick on the internet, to set it up lower to the ground when the weather is like this, so that is what I did. It worked and held up just fine in the wind, however I think I should have set it up a bit higher than I did. I will know better for next time.

After eating my dinner, I went down to the lower falls. The reason you most likely have never seen any photos of this waterfall: you cannot get down to it! Well, let me explain. The trail goes right by the falls on the north side of the creek. You most definitely cannot see the waterfall from this side. It is way too cliffy, impossible to get down to the creek level, and to top it off, the waterfall is hidden behind a corner with cliffs on each side. No wonder I had not seen any pictures of this waterfall before! But the waterfall madman is not to be outdone so easily. I did not hike 12 miles to see nothing! It seemed to me that I would be able to see the waterfall from the ridge on the other side of the creek. So I went back down the trail all the way to the bottom, bushwhacked over to the creek, crossed the creek, climbed up the steep and crumbly embankment on the other side of the creek, and started climbing up the ridge back to the waterfall.

And voila! The madman strikes again! I came to an awesome viewpoint of Cascade Falls, an absolutely gorgeous 59 ft. high three tiered waterfall. What a perfect view!

I did not want to go all the way back down to the bottom and cross the creek again back over to the main trail, so I just continued up the ridge on this side. I knew I could get across the creek easily at my campsite, and in fact, I should have come down this way to begin with, but I wanted to see if I could get down to the falls on the trail side of the creek first (which, obviously, I could not). It was very easy climbing up the ridge back to my campsite (well, relatively easy).

After crossing the creek at my campsite, I continued upstream to the upper falls. This was much easier getting to than the lower falls (thankfully!), and I found a great view of the upper falls (on the edge of a cliff, of course), which is 151 ft. high, and reminded me a lot of Twin Island Lakes Falls. (photo is coming). The lower falls reminded me a lot of Carson Falls (because of all the cliffs and scrambling around to get a good view). It is funny how some waterfalls are so similar to each other.

The upper falls is hidden and not right by the trail. I suspect 99.99% of the people hiking this trail have no idea there is a waterfall here. I saw no evidence anyone had ever been here before. I also thought it funny how close these waterfalls are to the Pacific Crest Trail, but probably 99.99% of the people hiking the PCT have no clue there are waterfalls here, and even if they did know, they would not take the time to go down to either of them. This is why I would never want to hike that trail. I would miss seeing far too many great waterfalls and other sights. Anyway, I headed back to camp and to bed on this windy night.