A New Perspective: The Ecologic and Geologic Oasis of Stephenson Canyon, Bremerton.

A sudden wave of nostalgia washed over me as I followed my friend and Kitsap Sun reporter Josh Farley into the depths of Stephenson Canyon. I had last stepped foot here over five years ago, at the very start of the "Kitsap Waterfall Survey" project. 

The canyon was filled with various shades of greens and browns, exploding with the growth of mid-spring. Carpets of sword ferns filled the understory, with large Big-Leaf Maples, Western Red Cedars, and Douglas Firs creating the canopy a hundred feet above our heads. And of course, down at the bottom, Stephenson Creek chattered away, beckoning. 

A "pocket wilderness" inside Bremerton city limits. 

I've learned so much since I first stepped into the canyon. In 2015 I couldn't have cared less what kind of plants and ecology the canyon hosted; I only cared about rocks. Now, I was taking it all in through a new set of skills and experiences. I looked up and around as well as down, remarking the enigma of such a beautiful Pacific Northwest oasis in the middle of a significant city. Craig Romano described it well in Urban Trails: Kitsap when he called it "...a pocket wilderness that feels like it can be deep in the Olympics." 

Of course, it wasn't entirely without flaw. Invasive English Ivy besieged several trees on the rim and down into the canyon, and trash and old city refuse was abundant. A community cleanup effort here would probably breathe some new life into the area, and the city would do well to pay more attention and protect this beautiful piece of borderline old-growth ecosystem. 

Moving on, we descended into the canyon and crossed the creek, moving our eyes away from the canopy and down to the ground. Various cobbles and boulders lined the stream channel, and the footpath traversed some small but textbook stream terraces that probably get a new layer of sand and mud every time the creek floods. 

Our main destination, of course, was "Stephenson Canyon Falls." The little cascade I "discovered" so many years ago. We rounded the corner, and the first words that flashed into my head were, "I'm an idiot." 

Back in 2015, I had no geology education other than a couple basic geology classes, and I hadn't done a whole lot of research on the geology of the bedrock underlying the Kitsap Peninsula. The extent of my knowledge was that most of the bedrock in the area was basalt. So I had assumed that the falls dropped over basalt. I was dead wrong. 

"Stephenson Canyon Falls" with slightly dipping beds of the Blakeley Formation. The Falls drop over possible sandstone, while the satchel sits on mudstone/siltstone.

"Stephenson Canyon Falls" actually drops over a resistant ledge of the "Blakeley Formation," a much younger rock with a completely different origin than the basaltic rock that makes up the Blue Hills. The area around the falls exposes two types of rock within the Blakeley Formation. The base of the falls is made up of siltstone or mudstone, and the falls themselves drop over what might be a sandstone with larger softball-sized class embedded within it. I have my own interpretations of what this layer might be, but I'm going to hold off on that until a later date after I do more research. 

Downstream of the falls, Stephenson Creek flows over and alongside some of the nicest Glacial Till deposits that I've seen on the Peninsula. Blue Gray concrete-like deposits form shelves and small embankments, peppered with glacial erratics and small potholes drilled during times of flooding or high water.

An exposure of glacial till with a carved pothole at the bottom of Stephenson Canyon. 

After viewing the falls and surrounding geology, it was time for Josh to head back. We made our way downstream again, where we stumbled upon an absolutely titanic Douglas Fir Tree, possibly an old-growth giant from before the first caucasian colonists arrived in Western Washington. It was a sight to behold and was a great symbol that despite the surrounding urban sprawl, Stephenson Canyon is still very much wild. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Contact Cascades"-My 20th waterfall!

Following my lecture at the Norm Dicks Government Building in Bremerton, one of the audience members came to me and told me of a waterfall on the Beaver Pond Trail within the Green Mountain State Forest. Their description seemed to indicate something small, but they insisted it was over bedrock, and so I decided to investigate.

As the wind howled through the trees and branches of various sizes fell all around, I hiked up the side of Green Mountain until I reached the Beaver Pond Trail. Within a few hundred feet, the trail crosses over Grata Creek, a stream running down the northwest side of Green Mountain. Grata Creek has long been on my radar, as it drops rather rapidly from high up on the mountain slopes before emptying into Tahuya Lake.

Lidar imagery map of Grata Creek. 

Even with these suspicions, I realized that most of the creek was bounded by private property, and so any falls and cascades would be inaccessible to me. Grata Creek originates on a spring fed lake tucked at the head of a forested valley at about 950 feet. The creek flows from this lake and bypasses another lake. It is after this second lake the creek steepens significantly and the private property begins. This is is the only place I thought falls would occur. I was wrong

Shortly after exiting its source lake Grata Creek meanders through some open pine forest, then less than a quarter mile later, it passes underneath the Beaver Pond Trail bridge, and immediately skips over a series of wonderful cascades over 20 feet in height, right next to the trail and very easily visible.

Bridge over Grata Creek

On my survey I was only able to observe 4 tiers in detail, there may be one or two below these, but I was unable (and really, unwilling) to fight through the thick brush to see them, so they will have to wait for a later visit. Of the tiers I did observe:

 The cascade begins with a five foot sliding drop over some beautifully dark volcanic rock called  Gabbro.

First tier "Contact Cascades" 

The second tier is a little more complex; two-thirds of the creek pours into a deep crack in the bedrock, while the remaining portion slides gradually down the rock. Here some interesting geology is seen. On the north side of the stream the bedrock is composed of the Gabbro the first tier goes over, but on the south side of the stream the rock is Basalt, which upon close observation, has even formed into small disorganized six-sided columns. In geology, the term used for where two different rock types meet is called a "contact." Thus, since this cascade appears to occur on a contact, I have named it "Contact Cascade."

Second tier of "Contact Cascades" 

The third tier is a small little three footer choked with forest debris and relatively ugly, the 4th tier is a long sliding cascade probably five or six feet high. After this the creek appears to go over at least one more drop, but heavy brush prevented me from getting an up close look.

Thanks to the person who suggested this fall to me. It is a great contribution to the survey!

One final thing to note, "Contact Cascade" is my 20th surveyed waterfall! Hard to believe I've made it this far after starting this project a year ago. Who knows, maybe I'll find 20 more!

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Downfall Creek"

"Downfall Creek" is the working name I have for the small creek that drops off the southwest side of Gold Mountain in the Blue Hills before emptying into Mission Lake. The creek is broken up into two main sections: The dividing line between these sections is a logging road located several hundred feet up the side of Gold Moutain which crosses the creek at an elevation of about 930 feet. Or 360 vertical feet above Mission Lake.

The lower section of the creek, which drops from the above-mentioned logging road down to Mission Lake, is probably permanent; during extremely dry seasons it may run dry, but based on the appearance of the canyon and the stream, it flows to some degree year round. Here the creek has incised a deep canyon has it flows down the hillside. In places this canyon is over 90 feet deep. The walls are covered in forest debris and thick stands of brush, making travel arduous and tricky.

Above the logging road, the creek forks into two smaller segments, it is unlikely that either of these are permanent. Despite this, there are reports of a 15' tall cascade somewhere along this section, at least when water is flowing.

My hiking partner and I surveyed the Lower Section of the creek on November 18. We started up the old logging road that headed into the clearcut, then cut cross-country and went into the canyon. Within moments of entering the canyon, we stumbled across a small, cascade, which almost didn't warrant a second glance from me. Then when my partner stood next to it. It became apparent the cascade just barely met the height requirement for my survey if you combined the two tiers, which were about 15 feet apart. The upper tier is a four foot plunge, while the lower tier is a six foot cascade twisting through a blocky chunk of basalt bedrock. For it's twisting appearance, I named this cascade "Corkscrew Cascade."

"Corkscrew Cascade" 

Moving up the creek, thick brush and extremely steep slopes forced us to cross the creek and scramble up to the rim of the canyon where we were assaulted by waist high brush and and unstable ground. Moving cautiously, we crested a rise, and my friend called out to me, pointing upstream. Looking towards where he was pointing, suddenly I saw it. Above us, and several hundred feet away, a streak of whitewater could be seen pouring over a rock face, disappearing from view into the canyon. We rapidly made our way to the fall, and scored.

Almost exactly halfway up the canyon, "Downfall Creek" drops over a 56 foot tiered waterfall. The fall begins with a six foot slide, where the creek gathers momentum before it rockets over a fifteen foot plunge into a narrow alcove which houses a shallow small plunge pool. Immediately following this plunge, the creek continues to cascade at least another 30-40 feet down to the bottom of the canyon below.

Looking over the brink of "Midway Falls" 

Continuing up the canyon, we travelled along the rim, having crossed the creek a second time. Several hundred feet above "Midway Falls," We viewed another waterfall. This fall is probably comparable in size to "Midway" but due to the amount of deadfall and debris impairing views of the creek and the falls it was hard to tell. I did observe one tier that appeared to be about 10-15 feet, high, and then a long series of steep cascades below that. Since I only viewed this fall from a distance and have not been able to accurately observe it up close it remains confirmed, but not surveyed on my digital map.

"Midway Falls" With hiking partner Spencer. 

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: "Heins Creek Falls" Revisit, November 15, 2015

Today I had the pleasure of leading two reporters from the Kitsap Sun newspaper to "Heins Creek Falls." A story by the Kitsap Sun is out to precede my lecture on Thursday.

The day started out almost perfect: overcast skies with almost no wind and a comfortable temperature. I had high hopes as I went through my classes of the day at OC. Unfortunately, Washington had other plans. As soon as I stepped foot outside the building of my last class the sky opened up, and continued raining for the majority of the day. At 2pm I was scheduled to meet up with the reporting team; they arrived right on schedule.

Not wasting any time, we trudged up to the railroad tracks and started toward our destination. We passed by Kitsap Creek, and peered up at "White Train Falls" through the trees; the water was tinted a slight tan color and roared through the canyon. With that much water I doubted I would ever be able to make it up to the fall the way I did before.

"Heins Creek Falls" at high water/flood stage

Finally, after what seemed like a long while of trudging through the ceaseless rainfall, we rounded the bend and the roar of a swollen Heins Creek came to meet us. Scrambling up the sopping almost unrecognizable path to the main tier, my excitement grew exponentially as more and more of the falls came into view; it was absolutely torrential.


Heins Creek was probably two feet higher than normal water level in some places. The main 20 foot tier, which normally is a graceful segmented sliding cascade, was a careening mass of foaming whitewater crashing down the basalt face. In some places, the water hit jutting outcrops of basalt with enough force to create small but powerful rooster tails. When the creek encountered the massive logjam, instead of draining through it, the astounding amount of water was forcing the creek to flow over the logs, plunging down into the large alcove. The final 10 foot cascading section was still recognizable, but a lot more violent as well.

As well as being extremely excited myself, I was pleased to look over and see the reporters with smiles etched on their faces. One remarked "I never knew something like this even existed in Kitsap, this is amazing." Watching waterfalls alone is one thing, but seeing people's reactions to their first sight of them sometimes is even better.

Video of the Falls. 

Waterfall Lecture, Thursday 11/19

To all readers and anyone who is interested. I will be giving a lecture on the Kitsap Waterfall Survey on Thursday, November 19, in the Norm Dicks Government building in downtown Bremerton. The lecture will be from 1:30-3pm You can sign up using this link! Seats could go fast!

Kitsap Waterfall Survey: Upper Wildcat Creek

Wildcat Creek is one of Kitsap County's largest salmon streams, producing healthy runs of Chum and Coho salmon each year. Being one of Chico creek's largest tributaries, it has naturally been on my radar for some time.

Upper 5' section of "Bobcat Cascade"

Wildcat Creek is born in the same natural saddle that houses Tin Mine Lake; drained to the west by Tin Mine Creek. After flowing out of the saddle, even after heavy rains, Wildcat Creek is small, being only 3-5 feet wide at most and less than a foot deep. It meanders through the forested valley for less than a mile before it is crossed by Rock Quarry Road, and several hundred feet later, Wildcat Trail.

100-200 feet after the trail bridge, Wildcat creek encounters the basalt formations that make up the core of the Blue Hills. The creek drops over the first layer in a rather unimpressive two tiered cascade with respective drops of 5 and 10 feet. For the small size of this cascade, and for it's location on Wildcat Creek, I named it "Bobcat Cascade."

Somewhat disappointed at the size of the cascade, I forced myself to continue following the small creek, passing several more cascades to small to be included in the survey. Convinced that the creek had more to offer, I pushed downstream, crawling over logs, traversing steep slopes, and hoping there was another cascade or fall further down. Sure enough, I rounded a corner and the sound of hissing water echoed throughout the canyon.

After another several dozen feet, I found myself standing on the brink of a very steep, multi-tiered cascade, crashing down a rugged face of black basalt. Scrambling down alongside the fall, I carefully took notes of the different drops and their heights, here's what the results were:

Looking up the largest cascading drop of "Cougar Falls" 

The falls consists of 3 main sections, all within about 150 feet of stream length.

The first section consists of a one foot, two foot, and four foot drop.
The second section is that largest, with a fifteen foot steep cascading drop.

The third section is a seven foot shallow cascade over basaltic rock with a striking orange-red color, bringing the total height of this fall to thirty-five feet.

Third bottom section of "Cougar Falls" note the tawny color of the rocks. 

This orange color, which shows up in other parts of the basalt gorge the creek runs through; reminded me of the color of a Cougar, and thus, keeping in the theme of Wildcats, I named this fall, "Cougar Falls"

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: "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.