Elk Creek Falls Recreation Area

In search of a short but beautiful dayhike, yesterday afternoon, Lindsey and I headed out to Elk Creek Falls Recreation Area, about an hour away from Moscow and just west of the town of Elk River on Idaho Route 8. What I was hoping would be a short(ish) hike in the heat with some pretty scenery turned into a short hike in pleasant coniferous-tree shade with absolutely gorgeous scenery.

Since we decided to move to Klamath Falls at the end of this summer, I've been making a list of beautiful places nearby that I've always meant to visit but never got around to, in the interest of checking them all out before a trip to the Pullman-Moscow area becomes a multi-day endeavor. The list has been taken in large part from this helpful site, and near the top were Elk Creek Falls, Hobo Cedar Grove, and Palouse Falls. I'm unreasonably excited about Palouse Falls, but I guess Lindsey's parents want to go there with us later in the summer, so we opted for Elk Creek Falls instead.

Like I said, it's a pretty (and short) drive from Moscow on Idaho 8, a road that winds east for about an hour through valleys and within pine forests, occasionally interrupted by a small town (Bovill, I believe, had a working gas station in case you need to fuel up partway there). About three miles short of the town of Elk River (51 miles from Moscow), there's a sign for Elk Creek Falls, which directs you to turn onto FS 1452. FS 1452 winds around a bit, but if you take it slow and watch for signs, it's easy to not get lost. The road itself isn't paved, but it's a gravel road that would be gentle on pretty much any undercarriage. After following FS 1452 for something like 3-4 miles (I wasn't watching the odometer), you it dead-ends into an obvious trailhead, with a bathroom, a visitor's register, and a map.

At the beginning of the trail, you can either turn left and walk three miles to the Elk Creek Reservoir (apparently), or you can go right and see the falls. We were there for the falls, obviously, so we went right. I couldn't really find any information (then or now) about what's at the reservoir or why one might want to hike there.

If you head toward the falls, you head into a small network of trails that in fact take you to three different falls: the Upper Falls (the smallest), the Middle Falls (the largest), and the Lower Falls (the best). The trail network looks a little confusing at the trailhead, but each and every intersection is clearly marked so you can make sure that you catch all three.

It was about a mile from the trailhead to the Upper Falls, and we headed there first. A little less than half a mile down the well-groomed trail, we saw a small game trail that seemed to lead off to the side of a hill and came out here:

Lindsey playing with the larkspur.

It seemed like you could actually follow a network of game trails down into the valley from here, but we were within pretty strict time constraints and didn't want to be too naughty, so we headed back to the mail trail and after taking a brief jog out and around the Upper Falls to the west that involved a pretty sharp uphill, we our first look at the river.

After this, there was a rather steep descent to the east and we found that the Upper Falls was actually below the small mini-falls pictured above.

From there, it was a bit of a winding, steep affair to regain the main trail and head off in the direction of Middle Falls. Nothing that would challenge anyone in any kind of walking shape at all, mind you, but I'd come expecting a stroll and the uphill and the heat combined made it a bit more work than I'd expected.

Anyway, after we climbed back up a few switchbacks, it was a short jaunt to the large, spectacular, and further-in-the-distance Middle Falls.

There was a pretty obvious and frequently-used trail running from this viewpoint straight to the top of the falls, skirting a huge "Please Stay Behind Barrier" sign. Not wanting to be jerks, we followed directions, but it would be really easy and apparently extremely safe to walk around the crown of the hill  to the left of the above photo and end up at the rocks at the top of the falls.

We continued on to the last falls, and what it lacked in size compared to the Middle Falls it made up for by HAVING A FREAKING RAINBOW.

Waterfall + Sun = Eternal Rainbow

So that was awesome.

We decided to sit and stare at it while eating a small lunch, then we hoofed it back up out of the valley a ways until we'd traveled a mile back to the car. All told, the entire loop likely took about 3, maybe 3.5 miles, and we definitely didn't bother to navigate it in the most efficient way, either. There really wasn't any challenging terrain, and like I said above, anybody in any sort of walking shape could likely do the whole walk in a little over an hour if they wanted. Considering the relative ease of the hike and its closeness to Pullman, it was a pretty incredible deal for getting to see three amazing waterfalls and to just be in one of the green, coniferous valleys of western Idaho for a few hours.

On a scale of one to ten, I give the Elk Creek Falls Recreation Area a baloney-and-cheese sandwich with extra mayo.