Upper Thunder Creek Falls

Thunder Creek is a very large creek that drains a big area on the eastern side of Lake Shannon. Just before reaching the lake, the creek runs through a very deep, rugged canyon, dropping over at least two waterfalls in the process. The upper falls occurs just upstream from where the bridge over the creek used to be. When the bridge was there, visitors probably had a nice view looking down at both segments of the falls. Unfortunately, with the bridge gone, the right segment, which also has the larger volume of the two, is all but impossible to see.

The falls themselves consist of two tiers. The first tier occurs where Thunder Creek splits in two around a massive boulder. The left segment drops 23' in back-to-back drops before finishing in a pretty pool of green water. The larger portion of the creek drops over the right segment, which appears to be a cascading drop of tremendous power that is slightly shorter than the left side. A short distance downstream is another drop around 10' tall into the deeper part of the canyon. Thunder Creek finally exits this canyon via Thunder Creek Falls. I know that canyoneers have descended the canyon between the two falls so pictures of what lies in between the two may be possible to find on the internet. The walk or bike up the road is pretty easy, but the climb down to the creek is tough. I wouldn't recommend visiting this waterfall, but if you're planning on going to Thunder Creek Falls downstream, it's only a 5 minute sidetrip to the end of the road where this waterfall occurs.