Cornell Creek Falls

RATING - 32.0

VR - 4.0 (Med) HR - 5.0 SR - 12/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Very Difficult

LOCATION - Mt. Baker Highway

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 118'

WIDTH - 32'

GPS - N48 52.536 W121 58.362

ELEVATION - 2001'

DIRECTIONS - No directions provided. Dangerous access.

The waterfalls of Cornell Creek are found on the West Fork of the creek in the middle of a very deep, very steep, and very dangerous to navigate canyon. Cornell Creek Falls drops 118' in a series of three drops. The first two tiers drop around 20' in a 15' wide cascade. The creek then splits in two and drops 72' in side-by-side drops that are somewhat reminiscent of Feature Show Falls near Darrington. Immediately upon hitting the bottom, the creek makes a wide U-turn around the promontory before dropping over the middle and lower falls. The view of the waterfall is really close so it's difficult to fit the whole falls in a picture without a wide angle. Spray will be a problem at high water as well and when I visited it was raining.

While the waterfall is very impressive, the difficulty and danger of viewing this waterfall make it inaccessible for most people. I would highly recommend against visiting this waterfall unless you have canyoneering skills. It's just too dangerous without it.