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.