Quillan Creek

Quillan Creek is one of many amazing canyons with in the Sipsey Wilderness. I will say this is one of my all time favorite places to explore. Every time I hike here I always seem to find something new and interesting. This trip was no different.

While there is no official trail into the canyon, our hike started at the parking area were FS road 208 and FS 208A meet. The trail starts across the road on what used to be the Arnold Motor Express Way. Like most trails in the forest, we started out walking on flat ground among the hardwoods. This area has been heavily damaged by storms through the years,which requires some stepping and or climbing over fallen trees. In, places were there is a major tree fall we took the well beaten paths around them. Although with all the leaves on the ground, sometimes the path was less obvious. As we start to head down hill, the road takes a sharp turn. At this point,with the trees bare of leaves we can see a nice skyline and look down into the different valleys along the trail. Once, in the canyon and along the creek side the hardwood trees give way to the evergreens and patches of Mountain Laural. one of the first things, we see is the yellow green moss covered sandstone walls of the canyon and blue green color of Quillan creek.

The next thing we see and hear is a small waterfall on a feeder stream on the other side of the creek. Being the waterfall lover that I am, I have to photograph it ,after all that was the whole point of this trip, so we cross Quillan on a tree that has contently fallen across it.


After spending a few minutes shooting, we took out the map and saw what looked like a good sized drop. Thinking that there might be a waterfall there We made the decision to hike up stream.At first, the creek was flat, uninteresting and the hiking was a bit tough going due to a fair amount of dead fall. I was starting to wander if I had read the map wrong. Then after a few minutes I started noticing that we were dropping in elevation so we stuck with it.

That choice paid off. The first reward for our hard work was a small waterfall on the right side of the creek, however the creek was really deep here and with no way cross other than to wade. I chose not to shoot this one. A few moments later we came across another waterfall on the right side. This time the water was a little shallower with stepping stones, so we crossed. Seeing that it was about lunch time we had lunch here.

Getting back to hiking, I could feel it in my bones there was something big just around the corner. All the signs were there. We were steadily dropping in elevation, the water was flowing faster and deeper, and we had just hiked past a small cascade.

I was not disappointed as we came upon a nice sized three stepped waterfall on Quillan. While exploring the area around the waterfall we found a some interesting artifacts. There was a large metal shaft just a few feet down stream from the waterfall. While I was sitting up to photograph the base of the falls I noticed a large gear on one the ledges of the waterfall. I wander if that one time they might have belonged to a mill of some sort

We ended our exploring here for the day and headed back to the car the way we came.
All the photographs in this entry are copyrighted do not use with out my express permission