Lower Mercury Falls

RATING - 28.0

VR - 4.0 (Sm/M) HR - 4.0 SR - 12/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Difficult

LOCATION - Mt. Baker Highway

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 60'

WIDTH - 15'

GPS - N48 53.530 W121 44.520

ELEVATION - 2732'

DIRECTIONS - Drive east on the Mt. Baker Highway. Just passed the 46 mile mark, the road will cross the North Fork. Turn right just after the bridge onto Anderson Creek Road (not into the campground). Follow this road for about a mile to the first sharp switchback and park. Walk up the overgrown road that heads off the corner until you come to Barometer Creek. The falls are about 1/2 a mile upstream. Stay on the ridge to the east of the creek and drop down once you see the falls.

Barometer Creek runs over a seemingly never-ending series of waterfalls and cascades as it makes its journey from the slopes of Barometer Mountain to the North Fork of the Nooksack. Along the way, it drops over three major waterfalls. The lowest of the three waterfalls on is the easiest of the three to see, relatively speaking, and also the best of the bunch. Here Barometer Creek drops over a two-tiered waterfall, the first tier of which is 40' in height. It starts as a sliding drop and then becomes side-by-side plunges. Just downstream the creek tumbles over a lower tier, cascading for another 20' bringing the total to 60'. With some (additional) effort, it is probably possible to get right to the base of the falls for an even better look but the view from the canyon rim is pretty nice as well.