While we are loving Crater Lake, last week we ventured out to some local waterfalls. This area is rich with lakes, streams, creeks, and waterfalls. We visited Watson Falls and Toketee Falls, which are north of us. Watson Falls is an 1hour and 17 minutes from us, and Toketee was another 7 minutes beyond that.
Watson Falls is a 292 free fall that drops into a rushing stream. The hike was a .8 mile steep trail that winds through old growth Hemlock and Douglas firs. The trail is lovely with lots of nature eye candy in the short distance. The rolling boulders along the trails are covered with velvet green carpet of moss, with the gentle music of a trickling stream, that off shoots from the main stream. Far up the trail the rush of the water develops in to a full symphony of sounds instead of soft back ground music. I was reminded that I can’t walk and admire scenery at the same time; as I tripped over a stone in the path and received a beautiful souvenir in the guise of a bruise the size of an eggplant on one shin.
The view at the top was absolutely worth the ‘moderate’ climb. The falls drops far below, spraying up misty fine droplets of water at the trails viewpoint.
Toketee Falls is a more “tamed” trail, in that there are no switchback to navigate and no scrambles. The trail has been painstaking built up with stairs all along the route; having said that, hundreds of stairs are a challenge of their own. The trail begins at a 71 year old engineering marvel. There is a 12 foot diameter redwood-stave pipeline that is the first part of hydroelectric system that feeds 3 generator turbines. They generate enough energy for about 22,500 homes. I thought it was beautiful in an architectural way. It has sprung a few leaks over the years.
The Hike itself was along a fast moving river and ends in a spectacular double fall. It would have been incredible to have drone footage of this fall as the viewpoint was not directly in front of the falls.
The view was magnificent none the less.
There are more falls to see and more hikes to take. Thanks for checking in on our adventure. Leave a comment or question if you have any ideas of what we need to see or what you’d like to know about. We’ll get back to you as soon as we find internet again.
So beautiful!!