Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Jade Cascades"

About 1.2 miles West of the Wildcat Trailhead for Green Mountain, along Holly Road is a small seasonal stream. This ephemeral stream originates in a saddle between peaks 1107 and 1291 in the Blue Hills, flowing almost a half mile before passing underneath Holly road in a small culvert. Immediately after exiting this culvert, this launches itself down a 25 foot crashing descent in a steep cascade type waterfall to the bottom of the canyon. While the volume of water itself is nothing to get very excited about, I was struck by the thickness and the vibrancy of the green moss lining the headwall the creek flowed over. Due to the intense green this moss exhibited, I elected to suggest the name "Jade Cascade" for this waterfall.

"Jade Falls" bouncing over the bright green moss covered rocks below Holly Road.
Photo by Micah K. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Heins Creek Falls"

About one mile to the southwest of "White Train Falls," Heins creek plunges over the edge of the same drop off into the valley below in a spectacular 50 foot tiered waterfall. The fall has five tiers, which will be described as one moves downstream from the top of the fall.

The first four foot sliding drop of "Heins Creek Falls." Photo by Micah K. 

After tumbling through a lush shallow canyon, Heins creek begins its final fantastic descent with a four foot slide over a basalt shelf into a small shallow pool. After this pool, the creek immediately drops 20 feet into another plunge pool as a sliding cascade, then bounces another five feet in another slide before pooling against an incredible logjam which appears to have dammed the creek up to a depth of three to four feet.

Sliding Cascade tier Photo by Micah K.

After slipping through this logjam, the creek dives over the most striking tier tucked in a narrow alcove of basalt. The main volume of the creek horsetails over a 20 foot basalt face, while a smaller segment nosedives 10 feet into a deep cleft in the rock in a semi-hidden plunge, and then plunges another 6 feet as it exits the cleft. Following this tier the creek takes a slight bend to the left, and fans out in a final 10 foot cascade, before flowing down to Heins Lake.

The best tier of "Heins Creek Falls"
Photo by Micah K.

The final tier of "Heins Creek Falls"
Photo by Micah K. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "White Train Falls"

Kitsap Creek originates from a small lake high up on the forested plateau owned by the Ueland Tree Farm, west of Kitsap Lake. The southeast side of this plateau is a large sudden drop off into a valley. At the edge of the plateau where the creek flows across this drop off, it has incised a impressive, nearly impenetrable gorge into the hillside through which it crashes in a cacophony of hissing water. At the head of this gorge, where the creek hurls itself into it, is "White Train Falls."

Upper two tiers of "White Train Falls," Kitsap Creek, Kitsap County, WA.
Photo by Micah K. 

"White Train Falls" consists of 3 main tiers and maybe more. The waterfall begins where it drops over two 5 foot steps, immediately slides over the edge of a basalt headwall, and horsetails 20 feet into a small plunge pool. Immediately after this pool, the creek takes a slight left turn and crashes chaotically down another drop of about 20 feet. Finally, after briefly resting in a pool created by a small logjam, the creek takes a final leap of about 10 feet as a beautiful twisting horsetail. Below the falls, the bedrock ends and the creek continues cascading over loose boulders until it passes below a railroad line.

The lower 10ft tier of "White Train Falls," Kitsap Creek, Kitsap County, WA.
Photo by Micah K. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Kitsap Lake Cascades,"

The other day while looking through fish habitat reports for Kitsap County, I stumbled across a reference for a "cascade" occurring just after the outflow from Kitsap Lake. This surprised me, as I thought the terrain immediately surrounding the lake was too flat to produce any sizeable water features, turns out anything can happen in the Puget Lowlands. Since Kitsap Lake was on the way to somewhere I had to go after classes, I decided to drive by and take a look. I parked the car at the spot and walked to the edge of the creek, almost immediately I was met with the roar of crashing water reaching out of the small gorge towards me. I began down a small social trail, and this is what I found:

Upper Tier of "Kitsap Cascades," Photo by Micah K. 

Almost immediately after exiting Kitsap Lake, Kitsap Creek has incised a small gorge in the glacial deposits all the way down to the bedrock . After flowing under the road, the creek begins a series of sliding tumbles over several basalt shelves totaling approximately ten feet high, barely making the survey's height requirement. This cascade takes the appearance of a smaller more stretched out version of "Gold Creek Falls". The most striking portion of the falls are the two main drops. The upper drop, which is also the most visible, slides about three to four feet just before a sharp turn in the creek, then about 40 feet further downstream, the creek crashes over another drop five to six feet high. This is where the most significant portion of the cascade ends, although tiny one to two foot drops occur for the next 50 feet or so until the creek finally calms down and continues its journey to link up with Chico Creek.

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: Tin Mine Creek

 Tin Mine Creek begins on the upper northern slopes of Green Mountain in the Blue Hills. The upper portion has yet to be surveyed, but topographic and shaded relief maps indicate that there could be cascades and possibly falls along its course, as it falls 300 feet in .6 miles.

"Logroll Cascades," Tin Mine Creek, photo by Micah K. 

           
After flowing into Tin Mine Lake, the creek chatters through a relatively open forest for several hundred feet before it trips over a protrusion of basalt , cascading about eight feet. When first seen, this feature was rather ugly: choked with forest debris. But because it was easy to scramble around it, my hiking partner and I cleared out most of the debris, revealing that despite its size the cascade was quite photogenic.  For the amount of logs that the we rolled out of the cascade, we named it “Logroll Cascade”

Middle two tiers of "Tin Mine Falls"
Tin Mine Creek, photo by Micah K. 

Following “Logroll Cascade,” Tin Mine Creek takes a sharp right turn and begins a series of ever steepening cascades. Here the creek has carved a 15 foot high gorge. Several hundred feet after the beginning of these cascades, the canyon opens into a large alcove, and the creek dives over the first tier of "Tin Mine Falls"

"Tin Mine Falls" has five separate drops, or tiers.The first  plunges into the above-mentioned alcove in a beautiful 15 foot horsetail. 30 feet downstream the creek tumbles over the second tier: a small 6 foot cascade into a small, deep pool. Exiting this pool the creek immediately goes over the third tier and horsetails ten feet down another basalt face, then plunges vertically another five into a large crevice in the basalt bedrock. Upon exiting this crevice, the creek slides through a small chute and careens over the fourth tier in a 30 foot horsetail; Halfway down this horsetail the creek ricochets off the canyon wall before reaching the bottom. After flowing for another 50 feet or so, the creek goes over the final fifteen foot horsetail.  All these tiers added together puts Tin Mine Falls in the 80 foot range, easily the tallest waterfall in the entire survey thus far. 

"Echo Falls," Tin Mine Creek, photo by Micah K. 

About 500 feet downstream of “Tin Mine Falls,” after flowing rather quietly for a period, Tin Mine Creek drops over a large basalt shelf in another fifteen-foot waterfall This fall’s shape is one of the more unique I have observed in Kitsap County; about a third of the volume of the creek plunges straight over the edge of the rock face in a straight free fall to the plunge pool. The other two thirds of the creek tumbles over a steep jagged face in a sliding cascade. A shallow natural amphitheater surrounds this fall, which amplifies the low bass tone of the roaring water. For this effect, I named the fall “Echo Falls.”

          
Following “Echo Falls,” Tin Mine Creek gently meanders through the forest until joining with a small tributary and flowing into the lowlands and emptying into Tahuya Lake.