Head out on this 4.7-km out-and-back trail near North Fork, California. Generally considered an easy route, it takes an average of 1 h 1 min to complete. This trail is great for hiking, and it's unlikely you'll encounter many other people while exploring. The best times to visit this trail are May through July. Dogs are welcome, but must be on a lead.
| 5 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 1 |
The falls are very close to the campgrounds; just across the road. If you wanted to hike, you could park at the trail-head (snowmobile area) and continue walking on the road to the falls and the campground. Or, you could continue to drive to the falls. There’s ample parking at the campground. There’s also one or two parking places before and after the bridge right off the road. There was a tiny bit of snow in the extreme shadows. You really had to look. There is evidence of fire. I think it may have been the Creek Fire. Just about any vehicle with 8 inches or so of clearance can make it. 4-wheel drive is not necessary.
The trail is actually a dirt road. If you're going to camp at the campground, just drive to the campground, as the falls and creek are literally just next to it. Was a nice time spent with the family, and the waterfalls are very pleasant to linger around. There's a curious patch of very large-leafed plant growing just around the waterfall itself. I think it's Gunnera, but not 100% sure. It was definitely something my teen kids found amusing. If it is gunnera, it had to have been intentionally propagated at the site of this waterfall by someone, as it's more of a tropical plant. I don't see this anywhere else around the area, but it sure thrives all around the waterfall!
It’s not a hike, the trail is a road you drive to get there. It’s a little confusing to navigate but if you need help going just stick to the OHV trail side of the park and follow the road that intertwines into the red line trail on the map if you have it downloaded. The falls were nice to look at though
So this isn't really a trail...it's a dirt road. You certainly could walk it if you really want to. I just drove it, went past the Campground and parked next to the bridge. There's not a ton of space for parking, but no one else was around. THE FALLS WERE BEAUTIFUL!!
Like others mentioned the trail is hard to find but once you get to the bridge you can find it next to the waterfalls very unkept area. The waterfall itself is beautiful and worth the drive. To find the waterfall head towards the Whiskey Falls campground you will see the bridge up a little more from the campground. Very secluded area no service or maps available on phone. Good idea to take a paper map just to be safe if you are going to go off trail. The campground itself was closed due to fallen trees.
The drive in is the adventure! It’s a little tricky, but I downloaded the Nat Geo Topo map and that helped a lot. Most of the way is an “unmaintained” road used for the forest service and logging trucks. Yes there are some ruts, but my Toyota sedan had no issues because I went slowly. The falls are just beyond the campground and super easy to access. The water is a little low right now, but the adventure is worth the trip!
As others have mentioned, hard to find and google maps send you to the wrong location. You can follow map up to where you see the Whiskey Falls campground 1 mile -> sign. Turn right towards campground and follow road all the way to the bridge/waterfall. It’s a narrow and bumpy road, a bit bumpier that what you came in on through on Autumn Ridge Way, so you could park just outside the campground road and walk the 1.25 miles in. Waterfall is very pretty.
This place was almost impossible to find. There’s lots of confusion on where to go when you’re at the “gate” which isn’t so much a gate as it is a fork in the road. We attempted to go straight, but that led us to residential. We turned around and went to the very left (when looking at it) down the rocky, non-paved road. It was 7-8 miles of very slow driving that a typical sedan could not do (we were in a Highlander). We never found the trail we were supposed to go down, but we parked at the bridge and walked up what we thought was a trail, which ended up being a steep dirt bike trail. We came back down and continued to walk down the road thinking it was possibly a trail. We didn’t see that it looped back and we had NO SERVICE, so we could t check the maps. So we walked back and just hung out at the Falls, which was absolutely beautiful. The Falls were a 5/5, but I wouldn’t recommend this place if you’re wanting to go on a hike and you don’t have a dirt bike. Nothing is really marked so it’s all very confusing.
More a walk down a forest road which you could drive on, than it is a hike. But some nice waterfalls at the end. Like others have said, Google Maps gives some bad directions. At N37.256986 W119.449.674 Google has you turn left onto Whisky Snowmobile Trails Rd. It’s a prettier drive going that way, but you will need an off-road vehicle to go that way. I made it in a 4WD pickup truck, but it would be very risky or maybe impossible in a crossover. Instead of making that turn, just keep going straight on Whisky Falls Rd. For some reason Google Maps thinks the road ends there, but it just goes on through straight to where you need to go. You can see it on the satellite view.
This is a beautiful waterfall and highly recommend to try it out. As previous reviews have stated, when you arrive at the gate proceed straight. The road will be windy, but it eventually arrives at a fork in the road where you can park your car. You'll see a sign thst says 1 mile and them you can walk to the falls. Beware the 6 miles prior to arriving are loose gravel, so take a good 4x4. Overall, this is well worth the visif!
We attempted to go yesterday, later in the day, in our Mazda3, but were taken down the wrong "road" by Google maps. DO NOT TRUST GOOGLE MAPS! About 5 miles before the falls we were instructed to turn left down a dirt road labeled "atv/dirt bike road." Google called it "Whiskey Snowmobile Trails road." THIS IS A WRONG TURN! It will lead you through rough terrain that is hard to turn around in, and could potentially damage your vehicle. We should have realized when we turned, but we were blindly trusting technology. Do not be like us. Stay on the road going straight. Because it was later in the day, by the time we got ourselves oriented, we decided to turn around due to sunlight instead of push on to the falls. We will attempt again soon, in a better suited vehicle.