About South Fork Mineral Creek Falls
South Fork Mineral Creek Falls was a pleasant two-tiered waterfall each dropping about 40-50ft with a colorful plunge pool, especially when the run strikes its crystal clear waters.
The nice thing about this waterfall was that I was able to access the base of each tier, which seemed conducive to wading or even swimming.
However, as you can see from the photo above, I thought it was the color of the water contrasting with the surrounding cliffs that seemed to have a tinge of purple and red that really made this place photogenic to boot!
As if that wasn’t enough, there was also an idyllic campsite called the South Mineral Campground, which was surrounded by tall cliffs in an open setting.
In addition to a pretty short 1-mile round-trip hike to the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls (which involved a stream crossing), there was also the option of hiking up to the Ice Lake Basin for something more ambitious.
Accessing South Fork Mineral Creek Falls
This brief excursion began from a busy day use parking area across from the South Mineral Campground (see directions below).
I suspected that this parking lot was meant to be the trailhead for the Ice Lake Basin, it was also fine as a trailhead for the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls.
Although there were no signs indicating the target waterfall, I pretty much followed the looping camp road for roughly a quarter-mile until I saw a use-trail that crossed Clear Creek (a side creek that merged with South Fork Mineral Creek further downstream).
Since I came prepared with Keens, I had no trouble getting across the shin-deep stream.
However, I’d imagine that it would be non-trivial trying to keep a pair of hiking boots dry on such a crossing.
Anyways, on the other side of the creek, I saw an even more obvious trail that turned to my left and then started going uphill from the confluence of South Fork Mineral Creek and Clear Creek.
Barely a couple minutes into this climb, I started to hear and then see the context of the pair of drops comprising the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls.
Accessing the Base of the Lower Drop of South Fork Mineral Creek Falls
Near the view that revealed the entirety of the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls, I noticed there was a narrow and eroded ledge trail that went precariously towards the bottom of the lower waterfall.
There was a bit of a precarious first step to get by the first eroded part of this ledge on the descent.
Then, there was an even more crumbly and steep final few steps to get to the banks of the South Fork Mineral Creek itself.
From down here, I felt that the water was rather painfully cold (owing to its snow-fed source), but the closer I got to the waterfall, the harder it was to see the upper drop.
I also noticed that there was somewhat of a little alcove here, which can play tricks with the acoustics as it can make me think that there was rushing water coming from the alcove itself instead of the waterfall!
Accessing the Base of the Upper Drop of South Fork Mineral Creek Falls
When I noticed that there appeared to be a continuation of a trail that went further uphill from the contextual viewing spot of the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls, I pursued it to see where else it went.
Not long after starting this pursuit, I spotted another ledge trail that led directly to the base of the upper drop of the waterfall.
Unlike the scramble to the lower drop, this ledge trail was a bit more tame and less eroded.
The use-trail was slightly longer than that of the lower waterfall, but it was less steep.
At the base of the upper waterfall, the plunge pool here seemed to be a bit deeper though there was less real-estate to move around without going into the creek.
So overall, I wound up hiking about a mile to experience the base of both waterfalls from the day use trailhead parking, and I did this in a span of around an hour.
It turned out that I was pretty much all alone for both of the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls though there was an angler leaving the lower waterfall when I showed up.
When I headed back to the campground and then the trailhead, I encountered one woman seeking the waterfalls asking me if there were lots of people there.
Thus, I got the sense that this place wasn’t exactly neither hidden nor unknown, but it didn’t feel overrrun either.
Then again, maybe that had something to do with the threatening bad weather that seemed to dominate the forecast though it didn’t really deliver on the day of my visit.
Authorities
South Fork Mineral Creek Falls resides in the San Juan National Forest near the town of Silverton in San Juan County, Colorado. It is administered by the USDA Forest Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
To access the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls, the key was to reach the trailhead parking lot by the South Mineral Campground.
While we can drive north to the falls from Durango, we came from Ouray so that’s how I’ll describe the driving directions in this section.
So from Ouray, we drove south on the Hwy 550 (also called the Million Dollar Highway) for about 21 miles towards Silverton.
However, before reaching Silverton, we then turned right onto the Forest Road 585, which was an unpaved road reasonably doable by 2wd passenger vehicles.
We then followed this unpaved road for about 4.5 miles to the Ice Lakes Trailhead Parking, which was directly across from the South Mineral Campground.
Overall, this 25-mile drive took us a little under an hour.
For context, Silverton was about 23 miles (about 45 minutes drive) south of Ouray, about 48 miles (over an hour drive) north of Durango, 73 miles (under 2 hours drive) south of Telluride, 120 miles (about 2.5 hours drive) southeast of Grand Junction, 324 miles (over 6 hours drive) southwest of Denver, 173 miles (over 3.5 hours drive) east of Moab, Utah, and 263 miles (over 4.5 hours drive) north of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Checking out both tiers of the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls from an elevated area above the scramble to the lower falls
Downstream to upstream sweep from the base of the upper drop of South Fork MIneral Creek Falls
Long video exploring pretty much the area at the base of the South Fork Mineral Creek Falls while the sun had broken through the clouds momentarily
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Lower Falls South Fork Mineral Creek May 5, 2024 8:19 pm - These pair of falls are reached from Mineral Campground by crossing Clear Creek and going upstream from its confluence with South Fork Mineral Creek. The shorter route is from the campground. The longer route is from the parking area east of the campground. The longer route is by going up the road and across the… ...Read More
Middle Falls South Fork Mineral Creek February 26, 2023 8:13 pm - These pair of falls are between the Lower Falls South Fork Mineral Creek and the Upper Falls South Fork Mineral Creek. The trail to the Lower Falls continues on up to these falls which are smaller in size than the Lower Falls. ...Read MoreNearest Waterfalls
