Today the goal is to hike to Richland Falls. Should be simple enough, right? I have wanted to see this waterfall for many
years. Although it’s going to be pretty warm and humid, finally today’s the
day, one simple goal; go see Richland Falls. Once again Richland Campground is closed, the sign on the gate
blames COVID19 and goes on to say, ‘dispersed camping in the National Forest is
allowed’ and ‘all trails remain open’. Once again, we park near the gate next to the
blackberries.
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Falling Water Creek near the crossing
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We hike down the campground road then past the second gate and down
through the lower campground to the bulletin board which is the trailhead. From here we enter the Falling Water
floodplain of round river rock and come to the banks of Falling Water
Creek.
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early summer jungle
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We came prepared for this
crossing, removing the zip-off legs of our quick dry hiking pants and changing
from hiking boots to water sandals.
Wading across Falling Water Creek is exhilarating, sure the bottom is
slick and the current strong, about three feet at its deepest…but that was fun, and we’ll get to do it again coming
back. |
Richland Creek
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On the other side there are 3 or 4 trail choices. We take the one that looks well used which zigzags up the steep hill, lots of loose rock underfoot, but not too bad. This we will realize is the theme for most of
the day; rough with lots of short sometimes steep hills. Someone described the hike as ‘scenic but
rough’ and it surely is both.
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rugged Richland Creek
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Obviously,
this trail was not built by any organized trail construction effort, it is
totally a ‘volunteer trail’. It is what
it is, and that is rough but scenic, with some real nice views down to Richland
Creek as the trail meanders upstream.
It’s slow going, about 200 yards after crossing Falling Water Creek the
trail detours steeply to the south around a small landslide that has created a
deep ravine.
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pick your path as best you can
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We slowly descend over the
next quarter mile to a nice area on Richland Creek with a great overlook on a
huge rock, lots of huge rocks all over this area in and around the creek. And with some beautiful turquoise pools
we’re tempted to cool off in the creek.
But no, stay focused, Richland Falls is the goal. |
swimming hole on Richland Creek
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After the overlook rock, the trail stays pretty close to Richland, the large boulders and big flat slabs of rock continue as we make our way
upstream. The trail passes next to one
of these big flat slabs of rock standing on edge. Then some rock climbing to get through a
particularly rough section. This is at the base of a huge landslide up the
mountain side 2 or 3 hundred feet above the trail.
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landslide area
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There are some ‘easy hiking moments’ but not too often, most of the way is ‘slow and rough’. We come alongside the south bank of Richland Creek and the hiking
conditions improve, this south bank is mostly bedrock, still with lots of
boulders everywhere. I notice one of
these boulders right at the edge of the creek appears to have a tunnel through
it.
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taking a break
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Just as I get to within ten feet of
the tunnel opening, I hear loud splashing echoing from the tunnel mouth. I must admit, I’m quite startled and freeze in
my footsteps for a moment before realizing we have surprised a bear bathing
in the sheltered pool inside the tunnel. I scramble around the east side of the boulder to try and see the bear
running away but all I see across Richland Creek is saplings and thick
undergrowth rustling about as it makes the escape up the steep north bank.
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some big boulders in Richland
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For a little over a quarter mile past ‘the
bear tunnel’ we’re walking on nice flat bedrock, some easy hiking. But it doesn’t last, more rough terrain then we
come to a faint intersection in the curve to the south. Actually a few faint trails branch off in
this area where Richland Creek makes the big turn and Devil’s Fork joins in from
the west.
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typical boulder field along Richland Creek
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With multiple choices we just keep heading south on whatever seems to be
the most used path and the trail gets worse…Yeah
worse, Kat tells me “Don’t ever bitch about a trail, because it could be
worse”. Okay, I guess I ‘jinxed’ us
earlier back there at that huge landslide.
But there’s no turning back now, we’re almost there.
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happy to be here...
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Richland Falls is only about a quarter mile
away, through the steepest up and down while grasping every little tree we can
get our hands on to keep from sliding down the rocky slopes. This last quarter mile takes us half an hour, but we finally get to Richland Falls totally wore out. Richland Falls isn’t very tall, but it’s wide maybe 100 feet wide, and just fantastic.
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finally, Richland Falls
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I have seen lots of pictures of Richland
Falls, some during high water when the
falls are a solid wall of water the entire length, and others during a long drought
with just little trickles here and there. Today is something in between, a little more
water would certainly be nice but there is plenty to make the waterfall look great. We stay a while admiring the beauty of Richland Falls and at the same time to regain some energy for the long rough hike out.
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Richland Falls
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Richland
Falls obviously is our turn around point, although we are not
looking forward to this, it will be back the way we came. We do find a small short-cut with a little
less climbing that saves maybe 200 feet.
But it’s slow going and still rough, somewhere on the way back, sweat
has seeped into my phone, and it has gone ‘haywire’. I guess that makes it official, summer is here, and it is too hot to be hiking.
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east end of Richland Falls
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I
probably won't ever do this hike again, don’t get me wrong we had a great time
at Richland Falls which is beautiful, and everyone should see it. Like someone once said, ‘you just don’t know
until you go’. Now I know, and next time I think I’ll try coming up from Twin Falls. Today we hiked a total of 6.2 miles. The route traveled has a low elevation
point at 995 feet and a high point at 1185, that is an elevation difference of just 190 feet.
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Richland near the lower campground
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Should be a super easy hike, but with the constant ‘up and down’ we had
an elevation change of just under 900 feet, which wouldn’t have been so
bad if not for the rough terrain along with hot and humid conditions. This is a good example of why we should always take the 'calculated' statistics for any hike with some serious skepticism (on paper, this hike is a lot easier, than it is in reality).
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Richland Creek (2013)
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Richland Falls: Statistics Chart 55 where we begin this hike is easy to get to; the campground entrance on Falling Water Road (FR
1205) is about 3.8 miles north of the concrete bridge over Falling Water Creek,
or 4.9 miles south of Dickey Junction. |
base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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