Taking advantage of what looked like a weather window today Don Nelsen, his daughter Susan and I got together to trek up Archer mountain and check out some rarely visited falls. I have never been up this way before and I can tell you it will be a place I will always remember, absolutely awe inspiring and relatively untouched.

The going was very steep for atleast 2 miles or more, it just comes right at you from the get go. We all tried to stay excited but Susan and I couldn't help but gripe to Don at the begining of every steep traverse.








After a grulling climb you come up to some Talus and Hanging Meadows, awesome, but steep.







Soon we were back on the trail and started our way over to what I think was one of the lower falls on Cable Creek. We picked up one of the old forest roads and then veered off and started to descend toward another precarious slope with a great view from above of the falls. Here's a shot of Don as he walks out onto the slope.





This is what I think is the Lower or Middle Cable Creek falls, Don knows for sure. We both estimated it to be between 70 and 100ft., easy.






This is what I think is the Lower or Middle Cable Creek falls, Don knows for sure. We both estimated it to be between 70 and 100ft., easy.



From here we started to make our way over to the cliffs above Archer Falls… The pictures should say it all.













After Archer falls we traversed around Archer Falls via the powerlines and Don took us to a unbelievable falls hidden from sight. I was probable atleast a 50ft plunge into a narrow slot canyon, it was unreal.






This is a view from around the other side.





Truly an unforgettable day and a very special place. One last shot… we had Spectacular Gorge views all day, this doesn't even really do it justice. Thanks again for making the trip possible it was a great time, despite the sore knees. Cheers… Jamie.

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When going back makes sense, you are going ahead.
- Wendell Berry

That's as nice a shot of Archer Falls as I've seen!  Great trip report Jamie.

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Jeff - Site Admin

Someday you'll take me home to live forever....up on the mountain
S. Chapman

Wow. This has just been added to my "must do" list! It looks like you've got some very spectacular views up there :D Thank you for sharing this trip.

Oh wow.  I am experiencing camera envy.  Great pictures!!  Thank you for posting, and it was truly an awesome trek.  So totally worth the effort.  :)

-Susan

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"Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature." - Cicero

    Thanks Jeff… I can't believe that area doesn't get more hype, but it's probably for the best. It's steep, and a bit precarious in some areas, and that valley area below Archer Falls is a "tred lightly" area for sure.

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When going back makes sense, you are going ahead.
- Wendell Berry

That Canyon has been declared a preserve by WA Dept Of Natural Resources. It is a very sensitive area with rare species in there. As you can see by the pictures it is not neccessary  to go into the canyon to get a great sense of what the whole area around there looks like.I think it is important to reserve these areas so we will leave a little area indisturbed for research. I know that is the feeling that I get from the contributers on the Hikers network. They are very good stewards of our beautiful area We still have a lot of areas off the beaten track which some of us like to explore and enjoy.

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Jim Daly

Jamie,

 

Well done trip report and fantastic photos. It was a great day in the woods with you and Suz.

The first falls pictured in your report I've called "Uppermost Cable Creek Falls" - (obviously it needs a much better name!) there are three falls below that one. BTW, Cable Creek is one of the local names for the creek and is not on the USGS map. Some of the locals call it "Sasquatch Creek" (!)

Here's a couple of pics of our adventure:

After a lot of postholing on top of the ridge, Suz decided hands and knees worked better. Most of the time it wasn't so bad.

Here's Jamie getting that great shot of the falls in the slot canyon:

And here he is at the bottom looking in at the falls. This is an incredibly hard to photograth falls and IMO is the poster child for "hidden waterfall" 

- Don

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"If I had known I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself" - anon

Terrific report, Jamie - and great pictures! Really a "place apart" up there! Amazing!

Don, is that some sort of diversion dam below Jamie in the last photo? What's the story on that?

Tom

    Tom,

That wall was a mystery to all of us… really. It made no sense, plus there was a hollow black PVC cable descending from the road down through the falls and down the creek. I wondered why? It looks as though the wall  is going to give way anytime for it is missing a few blocks. The flow was as high as it probably gets so it makes no sense to me why it is there unless someone thought they could damn it? But if it were to have a name I told Don it would be best to call it "cinder falls", atleast for the short term until it's washed away.

Jamie

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When going back makes sense, you are going ahead.
- Wendell Berry

How far up the trail is the viewpoint of Archer Falls? I was there Tuesday afternoon and I got some good views of the tributary waterfalls, but I had to turn around before I got a view of the main falls.

Jamie- that's Upper Cable Falls that you photographed (there are three more downstream). Great pictures, especially of the hidden falls.
Casey

    Wow, wow man I am so .... arggg .... that I couldn't go.  Jamie those views are mind twisting, awesome.  I must must get in there.  Is there a way to the base to any of the falls?  I'd love to try and make something out of that slot canyon.  Wow, what a cool area, man I have no words to describe how gorgeous that canyon is, awesome.  I wish I was there.

Not sure what will come of my meeting at noon, but in the afternoon I went and tried out and got myself some drum gigs in the summer... but I would trade those any day for this trip!

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Andy

    Thanks Andy… yeah you would of been stoked… plus there are more falls up there. There are ways to get to the bottoms we just didn't have the time. We were talking about going back in there sometime soon so I will let you know when.

Cheers…

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When going back makes sense, you are going ahead.
- Wendell Berry

Hello all,

Here's a detailed map so you can see exactly where all the many falls are located as well as how to get there. It's difficult to get to the bottom of the two upper falls on Cable Creek but can be done without technical gear. (stay on the west side of the creek.) Again, the DNR really doesn't want folks into the upper valley so please don't go to the base of Archer.  Jeff and I went there two or three years ago before we knew we weren't supposed to and I gotta say, it's a pretty tough bushwhack - ask Jeff!

 - Don

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"If I had known I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself" - anon

Tom, Jamie:

As I was looking at that wall, I was thinking that it MUST have been a complete dam at some point.  Here's a pic I took. 



I don't know if you or Dad noticed this but the thing I've circled in the pic is definitely a chunk of concrete that would have formed the base of this dam, upon which the builders stacked those bricks.  Naturally the creek bed itself would have proved unstable footing for that concrete pour (which probably wasn't a great pour to begin with given location and conditions), and any mortar used to adhere the first layer of bricks would have dried unbelievably slowly and probably not been all that tight.  So, it makes sense that the concrete just wriggled out of there eventually, leaving the bricks above where mortar is likely more stable.

The pvc is weird, I agree (you can see it in the above pic too; it's trapped under that concrete chunk and lays along midstream from there).  Maybe it was used in an attempt to redirect at least some of the water during the dam-building process so that the concrete would have a chance to dry?

-Sus

ps.  This is cute:  Dad taking that shot of Jamie taking his shot of the falls:

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"Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature." - Cicero

The warterfall next to the Powerline road up from Duncan Creek road is called Cyntia Falls. 7 or 8 years ago some of the older Mazamas including the late Roy Stout were trying to find a way to and from Archer when one of the girls in the party discovered the falls. Her name was Cyntia, thus the name. Obviously a lot of people are aware of the falls, because a dam was built there to supply water to a lot of the homes down hill from the waterfall. I have followed the pipe  from the dam along the bottom of Archer Mountain. There is a  route along the bottom of the Mountain to where the scree field is on the pipe line. The route was opened by a well known Gorge Author 

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Jim Daly