Upper Heather Creek Falls

RATING - 50.0

VR - 6.0 (Med) HR - 7.0 SR - 8/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Very Difficult

LOCATION - Mt. Pilchuck

TYPE - Cascades

HEIGHT - 339'

WIDTH - 20'

GPS - 48 04.536' N 121 47.223' W

ELEVATION - 2362'

DIRECTIONS - No directions provided. Dangerous access.

A short distance downstream from Heather Lake, the creek begins a long series of cascades and slides. Upper Heather Creek Falls drops a total of 339' over a run of nearly 1/4 of a mile. The falls begin with a beautiful 15' tall upper tier (left). From there it runs through a narrow bedrock sluice for about 45' before turning a corner and continuing to thunder down the mountainside in a series of cascades. There are several more nice little tiers along the way. The waterfall finally finishes with a pretty, fan-shaped 45' tall tier that would make for some really nice photographs with a lower volume in the creek. At the bottom of this tier the creek temporarily flattens out before crashing over Powderkeg Falls.

Overall the waterfall is impressive in its height and the volume of the creek, but other than a couple individual tiers of the waterfall, it's probably not worth the effort to view. It's a super pretty area, but it's really difficult to navigate and since only about 50' worth of the waterfall can be seen from any one spot it loses a lot in quality.