Gilligan Creek Falls

RATING - 34.0

VR - 6.0 (Sm) HR - 4.0 SR - 10/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Road Walk

DIFFICULTY - Easy

LOCATION - South Skagit Highway

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 52'

WIDTH - 10'

GPS - N 48 28.608' W 122 08.827'

ELEVATION - 558'

DIRECTIONS - Drive east on Highway 20 to Sedro-Woolley and turn right (south) onto Highway 9. After the bridge crossing over the Skagit River, turn right onto the South Skagit Highway. Stay on this road for around 5 miles and turn right onto Old Day Creek Road. The road travels up and around a corner. After about 1 mile you will see a gated logging road heading up the hill to the left (not the 1st, overgrown road, but the 2nd clear one). Park near the gate and walk up the road, taking the left hand route when the road forks. The road ends at the falls in about 1 1/4 miles.

Gilligan Creek runs down off of Cultus Mountain and eventually dumps into the mighty Skagit River. Around one mile upstream from the Skagit, the creek runs through a beautiful gorge and dumps over this nice waterfall. The falls consist of two tiers. The first is a 35' tall segemented drop that occurs where the creek splits around a big rock with the two segments combining part of the way down. The second tier is a 17' tall plunge into a little pool. At the bottom of the falls, part of the creek is diverted to Judy Reservoir by the Skagit County P.U.D. where it becomes the drinking water for the citizens of the valley. The area around the waterfall frequently has rock slides. One such slide destroyed the bridge several years back and it has been completely rebuilt. If you visit the waterfall be sure not to mess around with the equipment and be careful around the edge. It is very unstable.