There are hikes I’ve known of their existence for a while because every now and then, fellow hikers post comments or pictures. Some of those are in my list but I hesitate to do them mostly because they are short or too far or both. This is one of those is relatively short and far. At some point, it occurred to me that maybe combining this with another short hike close by or along the same route could solve that problem and in the case, I found such a hike in near Bunker Hill. I’ll tell you about it in my next post though. For now, let me tell you about Fall Creek Falls. If you are having trouble with the name, you’re not alone. I also thought that Falls was not a good name for a creek especially if there where falls on it. Anyway, this hike is almost like a walk in the park, especially if you only do, as most people do, the lower trail. It’s a very gentle walk in the woods without a lot of views (or any for that matter) until you start approaching the waterfall and see the top tier from the distance. Once you get there though is when you realize that pictures don’t do justice to this waterfall. The trail ends at an open spot that servers as the best viewpoint to see the entire waterfall. The top tier is an umbrella tie falls that reminded me of Ramona Falls Al that water lands in a pool you can’t see before plummeting down to the lower pool. It’s just an impressive sight.
From that view point, you can walk down to the lower pool, or around and over some boulders for different angles so it’s easy to guess that this place would be crowded on hot summer days. WE did have it to ourselves but only because we were there early. On the way back, instead of just heading back like most do, we took a connector trail that climbs up to the ridge and reaching the upper trail. This trail doesn’t offer many views either with the exception of a couple of sports. One of them is just northeast of the waterfall but it doesn’t allow you to see it completely. It does open to the valley and some people have used this spot to camp out (judging from the fire ring). Further up the trail there’s another viewpoint that literally on top of the waterfall. Again, you can see it due to the steep angle. There’s a user path going down the ravine that reaches the creek right before t disappears down the canyon that we didn’t explore as it was slippery. The trail continues deep into the forest and as far as I know, it goes into some dirt roads which didn’t offer anything interesting so we turned around at this point and stayed on the upper trail as it came around the horse trailhead and back down to the parking lot forming a loop. It’s definitely worth going and I think even if you don’t combine with another hike.
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