Pilchuck Creek

Pilchuck Creek has a beautiful low-elevation gorge and a fun 16' waterfall. The flashy nature of this creek that runs on winter rains makes it a hard one to catch. It can be at a perfect level on a Thursday, but way too low by the weekend. It used to be more challenging to figure out when the creek was running until Washington DOE added a real-time gage. Those who time it right are rewarded with a journey through a very rare low-elevation river system with no development in the river corridor. Logging occurs in the upland forests and it has been a popular dumping ground for old cars (resulting in closure of the road to the put-in), but the lush green gorges remind one of some of the runs on the Olympic Peninsula. It's a wonderful place in the middle of an otherwise grey Pacific Northwest winter. Although this run is mostly continuous class III+ at moderate flows, there are a couple of drops that push class IV, and the whole run can become class IV at higher water levels. Although a road runs along river right, access to the canyon is relatively limited.

The run starts out with class III which builds to III+ as you enter the first bedrock canyon. It's a short paddle to Pilchuck Falls. You'll recognize it from powerlines overhead. The river takes a hard bend to the left and crashes through the most significant rapid on this section as the powerlines come into view. A large pool forms at the end of the last rapid above the falls so get over to river right to scout or potentially portage the falls.

Scouting Pilchuck Falls will quickly reveal that you want to avoid the nasty hydraulics on river left (where most of the flow heads). There are routes on river right or towards the center. If you have never run the falls it's best to go with someone who has and knows the lines. They aren't too difficult to figure out, but a rock to the left of the center line is submerged at higher flows. The drop is often rated class V, but the launch from the pool at the top

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