Time to start making my way slowly towards home on this fantastic Sunday morning in mid-June. While on the road I crossed a bridge and immediately pulled off because I think I spotted something in the river below. Could it be an unknown waterfall? GPS wasn’t working and frankly I was tired so it wasn’t immediately clear where I was. Was able to get enough LTE reception and confirm I wasn’t trespassing and made my way down a small trail in the dense brush.
About 50 yards from the road is a sign from Hatfield Hydro Project confirming access is allowed for everything besides deer hunting with firearms. Hiking is good to go!
Trails through the woods are fairly well worn but it is steep in spots. There is no official end to the trail – just have to make your own route down to the Black River.
After almost taking a tumble I found some rocks on the river banks that gave a decent view. The rapids go on for several hundred yards and the photos don’t really do it justice.
View with a bit more zoom. Still very, very far away for my camera lens. Not a very friendly angle either.
Maximum zoom with the lens I had on today. This is the largest “falls” that I can see upstream. You can see this from above at the bridge but it’s so far away it looks tiny!
Put the Mavic 2 Zoom up in the air to get a better vantage point. You can see the largest drop is about several feet and waters are churning quickly here.
Here’s the same view but looking downstream to show how long the rapids stretch on for. Later on while back home, I checked the map and confirm this is a rapids at the tail end of what would be considered Black River Falls itself that sits below the Lake Arbutus dam (also called Lake Arbutus Spillway East Lower Rapids by other waterfall sites). Oh well – still worth the trip!
Video
Here’s a short video of the rapids (falls?) in action. One of these days I’m going to plan these adventures better for optimal lighting – this one is a bit overexposed due to the bright morning sun. Enjoy! [UAV Info & Disclaimer]
Hiking
Not an extremely hard or long trip but it is definitely off the beaten path. Have your bug spray ready and watch for ticks!
And here are the stats – again, not very long or difficult. Do be careful climbing down to the river as it is steep and the rocks below make for a very unforgiving landing spot.
