Walupt Creek Falls

August 20, 2026

Ying has been pretty excited about exploring this hike after reading about it. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive for us to get to the trailhead, but we feel it was definitely worth it.

The trail doesn’t have an official trailhead, but it wasn’t hard to find by following the instructions of other hikers.

Someone left some pink ribbons to help people know where the actual trail is. We found the trail to be well traveled so it wasn’t too difficult except that sometimes there would be a fork in the trail and it wasn’t clear what was the real trail and what wasn’t.

This piece of wood against the fallen tree is an attempt to tell hikers this isn’t the way to go.

There are a few places where walking across or over logs and ducking under branches are necessary.

Basically, once you cross the creek, the trail will be following it down to the waterfalls. Sometimes the trail is up high above the water; other times you are close and can see smaller waterfalls along the way.

This tree looks like it had a violent end.

I get Ying to pose for a photo along the trail.

Looking down we can see the creek below.

Unfortunately, the trees are often in the way. We can tell from some paths forming that some hikers have wandered down to get a closer look in places.

I managed a closer view of this one.

We continue on, occasionally looking again at the creek below.

I get my phone camera to zoom in on this one a bit.

I’m using the “All Trails” app which gives us a path to follow, tracks us with the phone’s GPS, and highlights if we are off track. I previously downloaded the trail map so we would have it even if cell service is reachable. I really like this feature and will likely use it frequently from now on.

We are above the falls now. There is an lookout here on one of the cliffs, but it really doesn’t look safe so we don’t attempt it. We will see everything once we arrive at the bottom of the falls.

We are descending now. Its not that steep in the beginning. We carefully work our way down.

A view of the cliff sides as we work our way down.

It gets steeper at the final stretch. Still didn’t seem as bad as we had heard from trip reports. The trail is dusty and could be slippery though so we work carefully.

Finally at the bottom. Here there is the Cispus river that the water from the falls joins.

The cliffs are steep and magnificant from down here. I believe the water carved these out over time.

Our first view of the falls from the bottom. We notice that unfortunately for pictures, a large part of the falls is in the shade. Also, we knew that we are later in the year when there isn’t as much water coming down. If you look online you will see pictures where there is a lot more water. We will time it better next time, but it still is a great treat to see and we are glad we made the effort.

Ying goes barefoot. I have some water shoes in my pack and use them. We know from trail reports that you can partially walk up the lower part of the falls. It is slippery so we have to be careful.

The water is cold at first but it quickly becomes comfortable in the hot sun.

Most of the rocks are covered in a dark green moss. This actually helps a lot with walking on it. We found that where the moss isn’t growing, the rocks are very slippery and its not safe to walk there.

We are getting higher and its really fun.

To the left there is a small steep part where the water runs fast. Above it are the cliffs.

We continue up.

There are flowers growing here.

We are shooting into the sun so my phone camera flares. Make it look like Ying is taking a picture of a rainbow or we are experiencing a heavenly event with a spirit.