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BRANDY CREEK FALLS TRAILHEAD

TRIP 2 Brandy Creek Falls

Two spectacular falls are nestled in a lushly foliaged canyon.

Trip Type:

Day hike

Distance & Configuration:

3-mile out-and-back

Elevation Change:

700' (average 467'/mile)

Difficulty:

Moderate

Season:

Year-round; best April–early June and late September–November

Map:

USGS Igo

Management:

Whiskeytown NRA, 530-242-3400, nps.gov/whis

Nearest Campground:

Sheep Camp

Lower Brandy Creek and Upper Brandy Creek Falls will thrill you in the spring, when peak flows swell the creek and create a show of watery splendor. The moderate climb is a bit strenuous, but the overall distance is relatively short and the effort is easily forgotten once the dramatic scenery captivates you at the falls. Photographers will find the best light at midday.

GPS COORDINATES N40° 35.818' W122° 36.023'

DIRECTIONS Head west from Redding on CA 299 for 8 miles and then turn left (southwest) onto Kennedy Memorial Drive. The visitor center, immediately on the right, is the place to obtain current information and purchase a daily, weekly, or annual pass that is required to park at any NRA trailheads. With pass in hand, head south on Kennedy Memorial Drive toward Whiskeytown Dam, drive across the dam, and wind around above the shoreline to the Brandy Creek Beach Area. Here, immediately past a service road, turn left onto Shasta Bally Road and make a steep, winding climb on a dirt road 1.3 miles to a junction and proceed ahead toward Sheep Camp and Shasta Bally.

Continue snaking up the road, avoiding the tendency to stop at two separate pullouts signed BRANDY CREEK TRAIL, to another junction, 2.2 miles from Brandy Creek Beach Area. Turn left at the junction and drive another 0.75 mile to where large boulders block the road, passing pullouts for Salt Gulch and Rich Gulch trails along the way. A small parking area with a bearproof trashcan is nearby.

Description

Walk up the continuation of the road past the boulders a short distance to where an old roadbed veers uphill on your left next to a sign reading BRANDY CREEK FALLS 1.5. Climb along this old logging road through a shady, mixed forest of black oaks, canyon live oaks, tan oaks, bigleaf maples, ponderosa pines, Douglas-firs, and incense cedars, with the reverberating sound of Brandy Creek tumbling down the canyon below. A healthy understory includes a variety of ferns, as well as snowberry and dogwood. The grade momentarily eases at the bridged crossing of a tributary, followed shortly by an easy hop across a smaller rivulet cascading through large boulders, which were deposited here during a slide in the winter of 1997. Beyond the rivulet, the moderate climb resumes beneath forest cover until a very brief descent drops to a junction with the Rich Gulch Trail on your left.

Upper Brandy Creek Falls

A short, gently graded stretch of trail from the junction leads to a boulder hop of a thin stream, after which the trail climbs again through a narrower section of the canyon. Soon you reach a viewpoint of Lower Brandy Creek Falls, with a park bench nearby from which to rest and enjoy the view. As a sign indicates that the upper falls is still 0.25 mile away, you continue upstream through the slender canyon, passing directly alongside the lower falls and the cascading creek above, aided at times by the presence of some iron handrails. Cross the creek on a twin-plank bridge and then climb along the north bank past another cascade and an inviting pool before crossing back over the creek and scrambling up to a dramatic, cathedral-like view of the upper falls.