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.