Middle Agathot Falls

RATING - 24.0

VR - 2.0 (Sm) HR - 5.0 SR - 14/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Fairly Difficult

LOCATION - Swift Creek Trail

TYPE - Plunge

HEIGHT - 116'

WIDTH - 10'

GPS - N48 49' 39.53", W121 40' 09.29"

ELEVATION - 3400'

DIRECTIONS - Hike Lake Ann Trail for about two miles and head right on the Swift Creek Trail. In a mile, the trail crosses this creek. Backtrack a few hundred feet to a little meadow area and then start heading downhill along the creek to a view of Agathot Falls. Continue downstream along the edge of the canyon for another few hundred feet. The going gets a little steeper but you will eventually see the falls. The best view is from a small promontory that juts out downstream from the falls. Be careful you don't fall.

The unofficially named Agathot Creek appears to contain three waterfalls. Agathot Falls can be seen fairly easily from just off the Swift Creek Trail. The middle falls is a little more difficult to view, but if you make it to the view of Agathot Falls, this one isn't horrifically difficult from there. Middle Agathot Falls is a plunging cataract that drops 116'. The canyon around the falls is a collapsed wall of loose rock that contains some amazingly bright, orange rocks. I have no idea what causes the orange rock, but I haven't seen it anywhere else around the Swift Creek drainage so for some reason it seems to be unique to this particular creek. For those who want to see the falls without bushwhacking, a cross valley view of this and nearby Popahomy falls can be had about 2.5 miles along the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail.