Take Hwy #101 to San Rafael, and take the Sir Francis Drake Blvd. exit. Drive 6 miles to Fairfax, and turn left on Pacheco Rd. (may be unsigned, there is a signal pronouncing “Fairfax” at instruction). Take an instantaneous right on Broadway, then first left on Bolinas Rd. Drive 7.8 miles to Alpine Lake and Park at the hairpin flip simply after crossing the dam. Parking is limited, discover a parking spot someplace off the slim road. The trailhead is on the left at the hairpin turn.
Alternatively, you can park at the other end of the trail on West Ridgecrest Blvd. at the Laurel Dell picnic area. From the Mill Valley / Stinson Beach / Hwy #1 exit on Hwy #101 north of San Francisco ,force 1 mile to Shoreline Hwy. Turn left and drive miles to Panoramic Hwy. Turn right and pressure 5.2 miles to Pantoll Rd. Turn right and pressure 1.4 miles to Ridgecrest Rd. Turn left and pressure 1.6 miles to a small parking area on right. The trail is marked “Laurel Dell”.
Cataract Falls sincerely consists of about 9 separate cascade waterfalls alongside Cataract Creek, depending on how you count them. They are all in the neighborhood of 25 ft to 70 ft, and are all quite distinct and quite wonderful when Cataract Creek flowing well. The nice time to see these waterfalls is after a accurate rain. If it has now not rained in awhile, Cataract Creek will likely simply be a little trickle and it will not be really worth your time to come here. This is frequent with many of the waterfalls in the California coastal area.
The hike is an really high quality hike alongside the creek thru a woodland of Redwoods. You are in no way a ways away from he subsequent waterfall as you climb up and past the speeding creek. Ot is continuous excitement, however takes pretty a while to entire this hike because you are constantly stopping to seem at the waterfalls and take pictures. The first 4 waterfalls really could be regarded one single waterfall, as they are all in a row, with solely a small smash between them. I would genuinely consider them to be one giant 230 ft excessive waterfall, which makes it the perfect waterfall in the SF Bay area. For illustration purposes, however, I will separate the cascades out into 4 waterfalls, as you cant see all 4 from a single location. Waterfalls 5 and 6 are separate falls, and are positioned just a little bit above #4. Numbers 7, 8 and 9 are located a distance above #6, after hiking awhile along a flatter, tranquil section of the creek. All of the waterfalls besides one (Fall #4) are placed inside handy view of the trail or just a brief scramble down to the creekside. Fall #4 is hard to scramble down to and bypassed with the aid of most people, however is arguably the prettiest of all of them. Once you attain the give up of the trail at the Laurel Dell picnic area, it is an easy hike again to the trailhead the place you parked, and just as exciting to see the waterfalls on the way down.
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