Cedar Creek Falls

Cedar Creek Falls is perhaps San Diego County's most spectacular waterfall. Plunging roughly 80ft into a plunge pool surrounded by rock walls, it's one of the more popular hikes in this part of California, which is perhaps more known for its hot and dry climate than its waterfalls. Speaking of which, while this is indeed an impressive waterfall, it does have a rather short life depending upon the rain/snow fall during the winter. Thus, you'll probably want to time your visit to this waterfall during the winter or early spring months, but only if we've had an average to above average rainy winter. Julie once went to this waterfall in early May 2001 and it was dry. However, on the latest trip, my mom and I showed up two days after a freak Valentine's Day snow storm, and the photos you see on this page reflects the state the falls was in at the time.

Getting to the falls requires a hike of about 4.5 miles round trip. If you're coming from Julian and take the Pine Hill/Eagle Peak Road access to the trail, you'll pass by the ephemeral Mildred Falls as a bonus. There are a couple of other accesses to the falls as well (we met numerous people coming from the Ramona Estates).

One last note about this falls... If you're following the 2nd edition of Ann Marie Brown's California Waterfalls, her directions led you to the less-than-impressive top of the falls. While there is a terribly steep and eroded access trail down a gully to the base from the top of the falls, the better (and much safer) access is to take the main trail (bypassing the first left fork) all the way to the bottom where there's a fork near some fences. The left path follows Cedar Creek (crossing it twice; you can boulder hop without getting your feet wet or keep you balance with hiking sticks) until reaching the base of the falls.



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Cedar Creek Falls with some people on top trying to figure out how to get to the bottom