Miles: 1.1 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 124ft/748ft
Map: Caltopo
Favorite Eats After Hike: Boundary Bay, Fiamma Burger, La Fiamma Wood Fire Pizza, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike details:
Racehorse Creek Falls outside Deming, WA, is short forest walk to a stunning canyon of frothy cascades from several entrance points. The trail is not well maintained in spots and can be muddy year round. There are both lower and upper trailheads.
My trip reports:
11/23/2019
Another visit to the landslide, another visit to Racehorse Creek Falls!
This time we took the trail off North Fork, about a third of a mile up from the bridge. There were a few pullouts for parking and the unsigned trailhead was on the right.
We hiked for about a quarter mile on the mostly flat and wide trail before the rush of the falls echoed to our right and the trail split three ways. We took the one closest to the right and down. In a few feet, another trail intersected this one to the left (up) and to the right (down). I am guessing down would take us to the foot of the falls but we did not head that way on this trip.
Continuing down, the trail dropped us at a viewpoint in the middle of the falls. There were several of the cascades spilling over into pools. Wandering down the bootpath from here lead to a few more viewpoints. The trail has a lot of damp foliage and makes for a slick trek. We had to warn the boys to be careful and stay back from the edge before heading back up the way we came.
Continuing up the main trail another quarter mile lead us along the creek without a view but there were a few spurs towards the edge of the creek canyon with a few more viewpoints. My impression is that there is the main trail with multiple spurs off it and then a boot path that runs closer to the edge. The one that runs closer to the edge goes all the way down to the lower falls. All in all we walked about a mile.
10/19/2019
After an amazing time wandering the Racehorse Creek Landslide looking for fossils, we stopped at the lower trailhead to Racehorse Creek Falls on the the way out. The trailhead sits .2 miles from the junction with North Fork Road on FR CL-1000 (a righthand turn).
If you are hoping to get close to the falls, this is not the trailhead. Keep on North Fork Road for the upper trailhead.
Our hike was a short stroll along the creek below the falls. It started out on a nice wide path but soon became a boot path littered with trees. The trail completely disappeared about .35 miles where we were able to drop down creekside and view the falls from afar. A significant slide marred the righthand side of the falls drainage, if the trail went further it is gone now. It looked on the map as if the trail continued further and crossed somewhere in front of where the falls empty into the creek. Where we were, crossing was not at option for us on this adventure.
We could see a few other hikers across the creek closer to the falls and guessed they must have come in on the upper trail. There was no complaining, the view was still beautiful and the sound of the rushing cascades made the journey in the rain worth it.
Directions: Head east on SR 542 from Bellingham. At the traffic circle of Hwy 9 and Hwy 542, head east for three miles and turn right on Mosquito Lake Road. Proceed one mile and turn left on North Fork Road. Drive 4.5 miles and cross a wooden bridge above Racehorse Creek. Proceed uphill 0.6 mile to a junction at the top of the hill. The upper trailhead is just a little bit further if you take a left (more straight) and look for the unsigned trail on the right. If you turn right at the junction (FR CL 1000), the lower trailhead is a little bit up on the left with a few spots for parking on the right in a pullout.
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