South Fork Eagle River Falls

Hi there!

This daylight savings time change had us all out of sorts today and it felt like gravity was stronger than usual.  I was so sluggish - so our planned hike was short and easy and one I’d never done.

  

South Fork Eagle River Falls, or Barbara Falls, is a super short hike of about a mile round trip and the path is wide and easy.  Google Maps took us right to where the trail begins, though there isn’t really a trailhead.  I’ve read other hiking accounts that share another trailhead for this hike, which is about 7 miles, but entering from this private side is easier and more convenient and gives hikers a lot of ‘wow’ for not a lot of effort.  It’s one I would recommend for visiting relatives from out of state.

As mentioned, there is a lot of private property in the area, so I made sure to park outside of the No Parking area along the road and we kept to the trail so as to not trespass and be rude to the neighborhood. 

Yes, walk this way, it's ok.

Once we crossed the bridge, we simply followed the wooded lane and took a right turn when it diverged.  After walking for a bit and enjoying the spruce and birch trees, I thought we should have been at our destination already and had just said, “I don’t know where we are” when we came to a sign pointing the way.  How convenient.  Another right turn and we arrived at the viewing platform.  It is a simple affair with an unimposing metal tube rail to prevent sightseers from toppling over the edge of the cliff, but Fly was a rebel and went right up to the edge to get a better view.

The falls are 60 feet high - so cool.

The falls were mostly frozen, but we could hear active water flowing, so we retraced our steps back down to the bridge so we could get closer to the falls.  I wouldn’t have dared climb down the cliffside to get closer – it looked pretty steep – so we took the long way around.  Once we were back across the bridge, we took an immediate turn up toward the falls and followed a footpath trail that led upstream along the bank.

Retracing our steps. 

Those mountains, though...

I’m glad we were doing this in the winter, because there were a lot of devil’s club stems poking up out of the snow and I can only imagine how dense the brush is during the summer.  I’ve also read about bears and moose in the area, but the only wildlife we encountered were chickadees.  Those little birds were out in full force and their happy little voices were pretty much the only sounds to be heard, except for the crunch of snow under my boots.  It was easy to forget that we weren't miles and miles away from civilization. 

We were able to get right up to the falls and spent some time posing and taking photos and looking at the rushing water.  It was just a little unnerving because I could hear water running under our feet, meaning our ‘floor’ consisted of ice bridges.  Not super safe, but whatever, YOLO, right?

Since we basically did the hike twice, it ended up being a 2ish mile hike.  The sunshine was lovely and the weather was warm: not a shabby day for a couple of girls who didn’t want to get off the couch this morning.