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. Crystal Creek Falls, Whiskeytown Falls, and Boulder Creek Falls are open and ready for exploration.

STOP! Before Hiking, Read This...

• Have you packed lots of drinking water and a snack or brown-bag lunch with you?
• Are you wearing proper footwear and clothing and have you put on sunscreen?
• Have you purchased your park entrance pass?
• Expect down trees on trails. While we clear the park’s trail system several times each year, the land continues to recover and stabilize from the Carr Fire of 2018.

 

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

Crystal Creek Falls

Length: 0.4 Miles on way

Elevation Gain: Flat

Difficulty: Easy

Trail Accessibility: Paved, wide, accessible path to waterfall viewpoint. A short, steep, earthen trail then leads down to a swimming hole at the base of the falls.

Directions to Trailhead:
From Highway 299 west of Whiskeytown Lake, look for the Crystal Creek Road sign and turn onto Crystal Creek Road. Follow the narrow, windy Crystal Creek Road for approximately two miles. Turn left at the sign for Crystal Creek Falls and you arrive at the trailhead. There are several parking spots and a vault toilet at the trailhead. The trail is the paved pathway starting at the locked maintenance road gate.

Trail Highlights
The short, flat, paved Crystal Creek Falls Falls Trail leads visitors through mixed conifer forest to an overlook of the waterfall. A short, steep, earthen trail then takes you down to the base of the falls, which is a popular spot for relaxing and carefully swimming on hot summer days.

Notice the abundance of tall, green pines and firs in this area of the park. Because Whiskeytown’s wildland firefighters conducted prescribed burns in the upper Crystal Creek watershed during winters prior to the megafire, the several thousand acres of forest in this area were only lightly burned in 2018 during the unprecedented Carr Fire.

Waterfall History
As you face Crystal Creek Falls, you will see a small concrete building to your right. This structure houses an overflow valve for the Trinity Division Tunnel, an 11-mile tunnel that moves water from the Trinity River watershed into Clear Creek and the Sacramento River via the Judge Francis Carr Powerhouse on Whiskeytown Lake. The valve is used on occasion when letting water out through Carr Powerhouse is not an option or when tunnel inspections or maintenance work needs to be conducted. The excess water from the tunnel then spills into Crystal Creek.

When the overflow structure was built, the Bureau of Reclamation slightly rerouted Crystal Creek. The creek was moved about 50 feet to the left, creating the picturesque “man-made” waterfall you see today.

Fun Fact: The trailhead and first half of the path is situated on top of a massive tailings pile. In the early 1960s, during excavation of the 11-mile tunnel, the dirt from inside the mountain was placed here. To better stabilize the hillside and restore this land, in the early 2000s the park planted native trees, shrubs, and grasses and contoured the slope.

 

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

Whiskeytown Falls

Length: 3.4 miles roundtrip

Elevation Gain: 750 feet

Difficulty Level: Strenuous

Trail Accessibility: Dirt path approximately three to six feet wide. Some steep sections of trail. There are a few benches located along the trail for sitting and relaxing.

Directions to Trailhead:
From Highway 299 west of Whiskeytown Lake, look for the Crystal Creek Road sign and turn onto Crystal Creek Road. Follow the narrow, windy Crystal Creek Road for four miles, about two miles past Crystal Creek Falls trailhead. The Whiskeytown Falls trailhead includes a vault toilet and a few parking spots.

Trail Highlights:
The steep, strenuous James K. Carr Trail to Whiskeytown Falls travels partially on old logging roads through mixed conifer forest to the 220-foot tall Whiskeytown Falls, a three-tiered falls and the tallest waterfall in the national recreation area. At the base of the waterfall, proceed carefully up the staircase to the Middle Falls viewpoint.

2004: A Waterfall Odyssey

PART ONE
In this modern era of cell phones and high-speed internet, being the first European American to discover a waterfall in a national park is rare. But that is exactly what happened here in Whiskeytown in 2004.

Notice how we wrote European American. This is an important distinction, as with their deep traditional connection to the land and its water, the Wintu traditionally knew every natural nook and cranny of what is today called Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. The Wintu utilized the park’s creeks including waterfalls for both their subsistence and sustenance. To protect the sites, the names and locations of the waterfalls were generally not shared with outsiders.

Once outsiders moved into the area in earnest in the middle and late 1800s, very few if any European American goldminers or homesteaders knew about the 220-foot tall, three-tiered waterfall. This was due to its largely rugged, off-road location on the slopes of Shasta Bally.

Eventually, in the 1950s and early 60s, selective logging for old growth ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, sugar pine, and incense cedar occurred. As dozens of miles of logging access roads were cut into the slopes of what is now the national recreation area, a few loggers knew of Whiskeytown Falls.

After the park was officially established in 1965, a few early park rangers learned about the waterfall. Like the Wintu, however, they kept its location secret. The superintendent at the time realized that there were not enough park staff to protect the falls, so they kept it off the park map and off the public’s radar.

Times change. People move on. Memories get lost.

PART TWO
Fast-forward 35 years to late 2003. Longtime wildlife biologist Russ Weatherbee had heard rumors for years that there existed a waterfall in the park’s remote backcountry, but no one knew where it was. This all began to change when Weatherbee found an old 1950s logging map in the back of a desk drawer at Park Headquarters. On the map, within the Crystal Creek watershed, someone had drawn a circle and scribbled the words “Whiskeytown Falls.”

With his curiosity piqued, Weatherbee researched topographical maps and aerial photos and identified a potential location for the falls on the East Fork of Crystal Creek. The next spring he and Park Geologist Brian Rasmussen drove as close as they could to the location and then off trail trekked the rest of the way. Imagine yourself in their shoes – imagine being the first person in years to come across first a sound of plunging water, and then a view of the tall waterfall.

News of the discovery or rediscovery of Whiskeytown Falls was received enthusiastically by park management. To provide recreational access, funding was secured to construct a trail to the waterfall.

Trail work began swiftly and involved the construction of two footbridges over Crystal Creek and the building of retaining walls in several locations to keep the trail in place. In some locations, old logging roads were reconfigured into trail while in others, new trail was engineered entirely. The work was completed by park staff and Student Conservation Association work crews.

In August 2005 National Park Service Director Fran Maniella travelled from Washington, DC to interior Northern California to dedicate the Whiskeytown Falls Trail, formally the James K. Carr Trail. Since this time, thousands of outdoor recreation enthusiasts have hiked the steep trail to the waterfall. Indeed, the trail to Whiskeytown Falls is by far the most popular and utilized trail in the park, and for good reason.

Like the Wintu since time immemorial and like 1960s park employees and contemporary park staff, please help us protect the trail and waterfall so that future visitors can have the opportunity to discover it for themselves.

 

Boulder Creek Falls in autumn.

Boulder Creek Falls

MILL CREEK ROAD TRAILHEAD

Length: 1.1 mile, one way.

Elevation Gain: 200 feet

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Trail Accessibility: Mostly dirt surface along old fire road with five-to-nine-foot trail width. Final approach to waterfall involves narrow trail on boulder surface with handrail.

Directions to Trailhead:
Follow Highway 299 to the western side of Whiskeytown Lake. Look for the Carr Powerhouse sign and turn onto Carr Powerhouse Road. Follow this road across the bridge over Clear Creek and turn uphill to the right at the small Boulder Creek Falls sign (If you reach the powerhouse, you have driven too far). Follow this gravel, steep, winding, narrow roadway known as Mill Creek Road up for two miles. Mill Creek Road ends at Boulder Creek Falls Trailhead where there is a small parking lot.

Trail Highlights:
Boulder Creek Falls trail follows an old logging road for one mile before fording Boulder Creek. After the creek crossing, turn right at the sign and follow the narrow trail to Boulder Creek Falls. On a warm day, the base of the waterfall is a great place to relax, have a snack and stick your feet in.

Fun Fact: Burn scar landscapes can be a geological 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.

 

Golden Face wildflower in bloom in Boulder Creek Falls Trail riparian area.

Boulder Creek Falls

SOUTH SHORE DRIVE TRAILHEAD

Length: 2.8 miles, one way.

Elevation Gain: 1,00 feet

Difficulty Level: Strenuous

Trail Accessibility: Mostly dirt surface along old fire road with four-to-seven-foot trail width. Three stream fords. Final approach to waterfall involves narrow trail on boulder surface with handrail.

Directions to Trailhead:
Follow Highway 299 to the western side of Whiskeytown Lake. Look for the Carr Powerhouse sign and turn onto Carr Powerhouse Road. Follow this road across the bridge over Clear Creek and continue past Carr Powerhouse. At the end of the pavement at the locked Bureau of Reclamation gate, turn left onto the narrow, winding, gravel South Shore Drive. Continue for approximately 2.5 miles until you see a small brown trailhead sign on your right.

Trail Highlights:
Boulder Creek Falls trail follows an old logging road uphill to the waterfall. Note that there are three creek fords on this hike from South Shore Drive. On a warm day, the base of the waterfall is a great place to relax, have a snack and stick your feet in.

Although this area of the park was mostly severely burned during the 2018 Carr Fire, look for pockets of conifers that remain alive and green. This represents the wildfire mosaic; different areas of the park burned at different intensities.