Silver Falls and Golden Cascade

Silver Falls and Golden Cascade are the series of waterfalls closer to the Sunset Trail section of the grand loop hike involving

In fact, if you've come all the way to Berry Creek Falls, you mind as well extend your hike by another mile or so and check out this waterfall. We're devoting a page for these waterfalls and not combining them with the Berry Creek Falls page because we felt there was enough to say about these falls on their own without cluttering the other page.

Both Silver Falls and Golden Cascade maybe so named because of the color of the underlying rocks over which the water flows. I don't think I can vouch for the colors reminding me of either gold or silver colors since we saw both falls under cloudy conditions. But we can imagine how sunlight striking the underlying rocks might at least give the golden impression. We're not totally sure about the silver aspect other than the whiteness of the water plunging over their respective precipices.

If you're coming from Berry Creek Falls, you continue hiking north past the falls for another mile through a seemingly damp and mossy terrain amidst a grove of still more tall coastal redwood trees. The first waterfall you'll encounter is the so-called Silver Falls. The best views of this falls is right in front of it, but that will require a shallow stream crossing and some additional scrambling near some fallen logs. There's also a sign discouraging scrambling near the revegetation area so the scrambling that we did was from further downstream.

I thought what made Silver Falls attractive was the fallen logs criss-crossing its base in addition to its vertical drop and colorful underlying rock.

Beyond this falls, the trail ascends steps while eventually narrowing into a rock-face-hugging steps carved into the rock alongside the very top of the waterfall. When the flow is really high (fortunately it wasn't for us), the waterfall can actually flow over the already wet-and-slippery trail.

We thought this was something you don't normally see on trails so that was memorable. And while going up this section can be a little tricky, it can be even scarier to make the descent back down if you've made it out to here on the Skyline to the Sea Trail and return back the way you came (like we did).

Once at the top of the falls, you'll be greeted with another small but attractive pair of cascades. This is actually the lowest section of the Golden Cascade.

As you continue climbing up the trail, you'll see a long cascading tier that I'm calling the middle section of the Golden Cascade. This part is probably the tallest section of the Golden Cascade, and like Silver Falls, the underlying rock can give off that golden color under the right light.

Beyond this middle section, the trail continues onwards to the upper section. This was the turnaround point of the hike for us, but the trail does continue up more switchbacks before hooking up with the Sunset Trail (to complete the loop) or to the Sunset Campground.

The uppermost section of the falls has two attractive tiers where the larger upper tier even has a bit of a travertine overhang giving this falls some character. It was this falls that seemed to draw the most people as we shared it with several other small groups of hikers who have decided to picnic here.

One last thing I want to say about these falls is that I tend to get Silver Falls and Golden Cascade mixed up. The easy way for me to get the nomenclature straight is to associate Silver Falls as the one with the vertical drop and the Golden Cascade as the multi-sectioned watersliding cascades immediately upstream. Also, Golden Cascade feeds Silver Falls (the bottommost field).

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TRIP REPORTS

• April 10, 2010

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NEARBY WATERFALLS

• Berry Creek Falls

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