Kitsap Waterfall Survey: Changing scenery at "Heins Creek Falls"

The upper tier of "Heins Creek Falls" with scale.
Photo by Micah K. 

On Sunday 10/30/2016 I visited one of my favorite falls in the area, "Heins Creek Falls" and was delighted to find that the recent rains have reinvigorated the creek and the falls were roaring with jubilee.

Everything about the first tier appeared to be in order, so I moved down to the second tier, which I haven't seen up close since the last time I first discovered the falls over a year and a half ago. What I found surprised me greatly.

If you read my original write up about this falls, you will find that I describe the second drop of this falls as slipping through a large logjam which is damming up the creek before it plunges 20 feet into a crevice. Well....things have changed a little bit.

When I arrived at the second tier, it had changed it's appearance drastically. The logjam has apparently settled even more since my last visit, and is beginning to block water flow from above. As a result, nearly half the volume of the creek is now plunging over the cliff over 30 feet from where it originally was. A swath of hillside that used to be covered in ferns, leaves, and soil is now bare basalt with roaring whitewater tumbling over it. The resulting display is absolutely spectacular.

The second tier of "Heins Creek Falls." 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.