Feather Falls

Feather falls trail is about 9.7 miles long round trip. The trail leads you to the sixth tallest year-round waterfall in the USA. The trail head is located near Feather Falls, California and is great for hiking and normally takes a half day. Area amenities include tent camping, picnic tables, toilets, drinking water, and parking. The Feather Falls hike is a very popular one, so I recommend coming here in the early morning. When I was here on a Saturday in early May, I arrived at the falls for sunrise, so I had the waterfall all to myself. But on the hike back, I must have passed about 70 other hikers on the way to see the falls. It was crazy. And it was obvious none of them had read my website because they were all going in the wrong direction. Feather Falls is a loop hike, the upper loop is 4.5 miles and the lower one 3.5 miles. All the guidebooks, for some mysterious reason, recommend hiking the lower loop into the falls and the upper loop on the return. I think, also, that people see the sign at the junction that says the falls is 3.3 miles or 4.5 miles and so they take the shorter one naturally. But even though it is a mile shorter, it does not take any less time, and is more difficult. I recommend taking the longer 4.5 mile loop to the falls (which is mostly all downhill), and the shorter 3.5 mile loop on the return. If you do it this way, you will have 7.0 miles of downhill hiking, and only 2.0 miles of uphill hiking on the return. The last 2.0 miles will be steep, but is not really all that bad, and is not any steeper than if you had gone in the other direction. There is a path that leads to the top of Feather Falls, where you can look down from the brink as it plunges down into the canyon. It is definitely a sight worth seeing. But be careful around this area. The rocks can be very slippery, and people have died here before. It is not a place to take children! There are also swimming holes at the top of the falls, for later in the summer.