Lower Furland Falls

RATING - 14.0

VR - 4.0 (Sm/M) HR - 2.0 SR - 6/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Medium

LOCATION - Whitehorse Mountain

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 45'

WIDTH - 10'

GPS - N48 14.740 W121 42.384

ELEVATION - 1132'

DIRECTIONS - Drive along Highway 530 between Arlington and Darrington. A couple miles west of Darrington, turn south onto Mine Rd. Follow it to its end in about a mile where a gated road heads uphill to the right and FR 2030 heads to the left. Park and start walking up 2030. The road immediately crosses Moose Creek and then reaches Furland Creek in just under a mile. Cross the creek and head upstream through the woods on the left side of the creek. The falls are reached in about 2/3 of a mile.

This is the lowest, and smallest, of the three major waterfalls on Furland Creek. The falls occur where the creek drops over a 3-step waterfall totaling about 45' in height. The largest tier is the bottom, which is covered by two massive logs. Surprisingly, this does not detract from the look of the waterfall and in some ways adds to it. Just downstream are two more 10' tall drops that could probably be included in the height of the falls. I took my pictures through the trees from the steep hillside above the creek. It would certainly be possible to scramble down to the base for a clear view, but I had bigger fish to fry upstream on the way in and was too wet, tired, and beat up on the way back. I'll be heading back into the area in the near future, so I'll get better pictures at that time.