Waterfalls of Whiskeytown

A Waterfall Exploration Guide

At Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, we invite you to discover the beauty of the park’s waterfalls. With several major cascades, each offering a unique experience, the park is a perfect destination for waterfall enthusiasts. Boulder Creek Falls, Whiskeytown Falls, and Crystal Creek Falls are open and ready for exploration.

Keep reading for more information on each waterfall or check out our trail guides to help you plan your visit. Remember to purchase your entrance pass before heading out, stay hydrated, and keep your vehicle secure by locking it and taking valuables with you.

 

The trail to Crystal Creek Falls is an All Peoples Trail. It's wide, paved, flat, and accessible for wheelchairs.

Crystal Creek Falls

The short 0.5 mile trail to the base of Crystal Creek Falls is an All Peoples trail - it is paved, flat, wide, and wheelchair accessible. The shallow natural pool at the base of the cascade is a popular spot to carefully swim and wade in on hot summer days. The trailhead to Crystal Creek Falls is located about 2.5 miles up Crystal Creek Road on the western side of the park.

Crystal Creek Falls was moved to its present location in the early 1960s to make way for the Trinity River diversion tunnel. Prior to this time, the small waterfall was located directly where the small valve house building now stands (looking at the waterfall from the end of the paved trail, the building is just to your right). The gravity fed diversion tunnel runs through the mountains 10 miles from Lewiston Lake on the Trinity River and dumps water into Whiskeytown Lake via the Judge Francis Carr Powerhouse.

When it is necessary to dewater the tunnel for maintenance or to check the tunnel's conditions, the Bureau of Reclamation turns off the valve and excess water from the tunnel spills into Crystal Creek.

 

Standing, pondering, at the base of the Lower Falls of Whiskeytown Falls. Photo courtesy of Hike Then Wine."

Whiskeytown Falls

The tallest waterfall in the park, Whiskeytown Falls is reached via a strenuous 1.7 mile hike (3.4 miles roundtrip) on the James K. Carr Trail. The trailhead is located four miles up Crystal Creek Road on the western side of the park. The trail follows some steep sections of old logging roads and climbs approximately 700 feet to the falls. Offering good exercise, shade, views through the mixed conifer forest, and a backcountry experience, the James K. Carr Trail to Whiskeytown Falls is the most popular trail in the park. At the base of the waterfall, be sure and carefully climb up the cement stairs to the upper viewing platform for a good view of the mid-section of the falls.

Note that although the Carr Fire burned 97 percent of the park, the Upper Crystal Creek watershed was only lightly burned. As a result, numerous conifer remain green and alive along the trail to Whiskeytown Falls. The park had recently completed prescribed burns in the watershed prior to the megafire.

2004: A Waterfall Odyssey

In this modern era of the 21st Century, waterfall discoveries in national parks are rare, yet that's what happened here at Whiskeytown in 2004...

Before becoming Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, this area of the park was privately owned by Arthur Coggins, whose logging company selectively removed Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, sugar pine and incense cedar during the 1950s. At this time, a few loggers were generally the only people who knew about the falls. Park rangers initially learned about the waterfall in 1967 but kept it quiet. At that time, the park did not have the staff to protect this treasure or the money to construct a trail to the falls. Eventually, these rangers moved on and others who knew about the site passed away. Knowledge of the falls was generally forgotten and only a few residents visited the falls over the years.

It wasn't until 2004 that park natural resource managers Russ Weatherbee and Brian Rasmussen, while doing off-trail field work in the park, discovered or rediscovered the waterfall. News of the new falls was received with enthusiasm by park leadership. To allow public access to this gem of nature, funding for the formal trail was secured and the trail was constructed, opening to the public in 2006.

James K. Carr: The Father of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

The trail to Whiskeytown Falls is named in honor of James K. Carr, one of Redding's native sons and an instrumental figure in the establishment of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. A state and national reclamation official, Carr served as President John F. Kennedy's Undersecretary of the Interior, the number two position in the department behind Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

 

Boulder Creek Falls in autumn.

Boulder Creek Falls

Boulder Creek Falls is tucked into a box canyon high above Whiskeytown Lake on the slopes of Shasta Bally. The pool at the base of the falls is a perfect spot to picnic and stick your feet in during a hot summer day.

Two trails lead to Boulder Creek Falls. The easier trail starts at the top of Mill Creek Road (gravel, narrow, steep, winding) and takes you about 1.1 miles to the waterfall. Note that at about one mile, you ford Boulder Creek. The more difficult hike to Boulder Creek Falls travels from South Shore Drive and is about three miles in length, climbs 1,000 feet in elevation, and fords the creek three times.

Did you know? Burn scar landscapes can be a mess, and the winter after the Carr Fire of 2018, massive amounts of debris tumbled down the waterfall and created a 13 foot tall log jam at the base of the Boulder Creek Falls--13 feet! Park staff removed the pile and restored the trail before reopening it in 2022.

Like much of the park, the landscape leading up to Boulder Creek Falls was selectively logged in the 1950s and 60s. As you hike to the falls, you are on hauling roads that carried old-growth Douglas fir and ponderosa pines to the sawmill. When the park was established in 1965, as part of the compromise, some logging was allowed to continue into the early 1970s.