Murphy Creek Falls

RATING - 50.0

VR - 6.0 (Med) HR - 7.0 SR - 8/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Very Difficult

LOCATION - Mountain Loop Highway

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 263'

WIDTH - 25'

GPS - N48 08.555 W121 26.313

ELEVATION - 1366'

DIRECTIONS - No directions provided. Dangerous access.

Murphy Creek Falls is a tall, complex, multi-tiered waterfall located at the bottom of a deep canyon south of Darrington. The waterfall begins with a pretty 50' tall horsetail that spreads out to 25' wide in places. The creek then drops over the beautiful 67' tall main drop. The creek then continues to drop over a 122' tall series of cascades that features, among other drops, a cool side-by-side pair of roostertails and a super cool bowtie shaped finale. The final tier is a pretty 24' tall horsetail with a huge log stuck right in the middle of the drop. The total height is 263'. The waterfall is really pretty, but like many creeks in the area, a large number of logs have become trapped in the creek around the individual tiers. It's disappointing, but the waterfall is still really nice.

I suspected this waterfall for several years before I finally visited. A couple things surprised me about the waterfall. I expected the entire waterfall to be over 200' tall, but I had hoped it was the upper tier followed by one large plunge. While that was a slight disappointment, the volume of the creek was much higher than I hoped so those two sort of evened each other out. This is a pretty tough waterfall to get to, but it's worth the effort.