Burney Falls, CA

Another day trip we took while we were staying in Redding, CA, was a drive northeast to visit Burney Falls in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. At a height of 129 feet, the falls aren't the tallest in California by any means. But from descriptions we read and from photos we saw, the falls were strikingly beautiful. The thing that makes the falls unique is the water comes almost entirely from springs. Although there is some surface runoff in the early part of the year, most of the water comes from underground about half a mile above the falls at the rate of about 100 million gallons a day.

There is an overlook for the falls right at the parking area. You can get a pretty good look at the falls without walking very far at all, but it's hard to see the entire width of the falls through the trees.

It is a short, but steep walk to the base of the falls. The next photo was taken from another overlook about two thirds of the way down. This area provides an excellent view of the falls.

 

You can see the two main streams of the falls near the center of the photo coming from the top, but the interesting thing about the falls is there is water coming out from the rocks at various levels. Some of the water from the springs stays underground until it gets to the face of the falls. The next photo is taken from a little different angle.

And the next photo is from the base of the falls. The pool below the falls is 22 feet deep.

There are several hiking trails in the state park. From the base of the falls, there is a 1.3-mile loop trail that goes a little farther downstream, across a wooden bridge, and back up to the top of the hill on the other side of the stream. We decided to do the loop trail, which turned out to be a good choice. The ascent on the other side of the stream was a lot more gradual than going back up the hill the way we came down.

As we started down the trail, we were fascinated by the large amount of rocks strewn on the hillside. The rock is from a layer of volcanic basalt that once covered flat ground. Burney Creek originally flowed over the top of the basalt layer. When the creek found a crack or hole in the basalt and began to flow underneath, it quickly eroded the softer layers below. Basalt is relatively brittle, and once the support underneath was gone, the basalt layer fell away as the creek continued to widen the gorge. The photo below shows Paul standing at the base of the basalt-strewn hillside along the creek.

 

It was a pleasant walk down the sun-dappled path with the sound of the falls in the distance and birds singing in the trees. The next photo shows us on the bridge crossing Burney Creek.

The next photo is a view looking upstream from the bridge. We saw a several people fishing along the stream. Most were kids, but a few were serious anglers. Trout reportedly thrive in the cold water which runs 42 to 48 degrees year round.

 

Along the far side of Burney Creek, the trail gradually climbed up to a level even with the top of the falls. Unfortunately, we could only catch glimpses of the falls through the trees from the far side. The drop-off along the trail is very steep with lots of loose chunks of basalt, and there are numerous signs warning against straying off the trail to try to get a better view. The photo below shows a limited view of Burney Falls from the far side of Burney Creek.

After we completed the 1.3-mile hike, we had our lunch at the state park, then headed back to the motor home. We had seen shrubs along the road to the falls that were covered with beautiful, light blue flowers that looked like small lilac blooms. The loop trail we hiked at the falls had a number of informative plaques about the geology of the area and about the plants along the trail. We learned the shrubs are called deer brush, apparently because deer love to eat them. The shrubs come in white and blue. We had seen a few white ones here and there in other locations, but on the road to the falls, there were whole hillsides covered with blue-flowering deer brush. On the way back, we stopped for some photos.



The next photo is a close-up of the flowers.

 

We made it back to the motor home with a little time to relax before dinner. From Redding, we headed north to Oregon.