Bjorn Falls

RATING - 50.0

Bear Creek is a large volume creek that drains the basin between Bear Peak and Spire Mountain and drains into the North Fork of the Skykomish River. The creek contains at least five waterfalls along its descent and they are all amazingly beautiful.

Bjorn Falls is the furthest upstream of these waterfalls that I have documented thus far, although there is at least one more just upstream that I missed. The waterfall drops a total of 109' in three tiers. The main drop is a gorgeous 62' tall, 20' wide plunging drop into a beautiful pool of crystal clear water that makes for a nice, although cool, swimming hole on a hot day. The upper tier plunges 36' and actually occurs on a tributary branch of the creek, the main portion turns to the right above the main drop. As the creek leaves the pool, it cascades for another 11' before turning into boulder cascades. The area around Bjorn Falls is beautiful with massive amounts of wildflowers to compliment the waterfall. In addition, Itswoot Falls joins Bear Creek only a couple hundred feet to the right of Bjorn Falls. Bjorn is the Norweigian word for "bear", so I have elected to name this one Bjorn Falls.

OTHER PICTURES

VR - 6.0 (Medium)

HR - 5.0

SR - 20/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Fairly Difficult

LOCATION - Index-Galena Road

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 109' *

WIDTH - 20'

DIRECTIONS - Bjorn Falls is only about 1000' upstream from Ursa Falls. However, if you come into Ursa Falls via the creek, you'll have to backtrack around 1/2 a mile downstream to a point where the canyon walls are climbable. Get to the top of the canyon, climb around Ursa Falls and drop down to the creek above. Then simply rockhop upstream to Bjorn Falls.