It was a very gray and cloudy morning at the beginning of September when we met with our friend Kym at an unmarked pullout on Index-Galena Rd in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. We were planning to descend Bear Creek, a relatively new technical route that is fast becoming well-known, several hours north of Seattle. This creek was first descended in 2021 and I had participated in the third descent last year, but Max and Kym had not done this route yet.
Located deep in the forest, the approach drops right into a popular swimming hole along the North Fork of the Skykomish River. The swimming hole is right next to Bear Creek Falls, an extremely scenic little sequence of intense waterfalls running through a polished granite chute. Walking past the swimming hole, we crossed the river at a point where it wasn’t running very high and started our long climb to the head of the canyon. The approach is about a mile, walking through deep forest. The forest floor is covered with dead wood and fallen trees, requiring constant attention to watch for false floors while climbing over logs and dodging bushes. Heavy rains over the previous month had caused a flush of large and delicious-looking mushrooms to appear, but I needed a sample to identify properly. In any case, mushrooms are fragile and don’t do well in a canyoneering backpack, so I left the foraging for the way out.
The approach usually takes more than an hour, with the last part involving a major bushwhack through hellishly dense stands of vine maple and blueberries. Fortunately, the blueberries were ripe and abundant, making the slog a little bit more pleasant. After the bushwhack there is a short section of slope to traverse and then you start heading down to the creek. Our forecast said that light rain might begin around 2pm, so we were hoping to get a head start before then. We got to the creek around 1pm, when one member of our party realized that their wetsuit was no longer hanging on the outside of their pack! This was a major showstopper in a cold 3C creek on a chilly day. We debated what to do and decided that we should head back into the vine maple thicket as it was most likely that the wetsuit had been absconded by villainous shrubbery. If we couldn’t find the wetsuit, which was a real possibility considering how incredibly dense the understory is here, we would evaluate the situation and most likely head back to the car together to ensure nobody got lost.
We followed our track very carefully to stay right on the path we took earlier and plunged back into the thicket. It was not until we were almost back out of the thicket that the wetsuit was located on the ground! We celebrated briefly and then plunged back into the thicket for the third time to return to the creek. I think it’s safe to say that we were all very tired of fighting bushes at this point and ready to get into the creek. By the time we geared up and ate some lunch, it was the dreaded 2pm and light rain started falling. Oh well. We all had more than enough neoprene to keep warm.
Bear Creek is divided into three sections. The upper section has three rappels in quick succession. The creek is quite beautiful here with polished granite walls descending into deep blue-green pools. The first rappel is 40 feet, followed by a short drop of 35 feet. We emerged into a beautiful corridor with a powerful waterfall creating a curtain of water right in our path. The only way through is to duck down and walk under the curtain which emerges at the top of another beautiful 80-foot waterfall that plunges into a very deep pool. This rappel is the highlight of this section as we rappelled right through the heart of the flow. The scenery here is just lovely.
This marks the beginning of the second section, which involves a long creek walk (.6 miles). Although it is a bit of a slog, the creek is not very slippery and is quite pretty. There are many boulders and logs to avoid, as well as pools to wade through, so it definitely takes a bit of time to reach the next section. As it wasn’t a very warm day, we were trying to move through this section efficiently.
At last we made it to the final and most scenic section of the creek, featuring a deep infinity pool filled with the clearest aqua-colored water resting on top of a lovely waterfall. There is only room for two people at the top of the anchor station, so Max went to rig while Kym and I swam to the station one by one and descended in turn.
At the bottom, we encountered a large logjam perched above a bowl. We were discussing whether to drop into the bowl to see if there is an anchor station when I remembered that we had climbed up the wall to the right last time, and traversed to the other side where there was a bolt. As it turns out there are no obvious anchors in the bowl itself, and it would be very difficult to get out if you made the wrong decision. However, at the anchor station we were looking directly into the bowl and were greeted with the sight of a waterfall flowing right through the middle of a hollowed-out log. It looked like a giant version of a waterfall you would see in a Zen garden.
After another brief walk, we entered the crux of the canyon. An amphitheater opened up before us with mossy ledges overlooking another clear pool surrounded by walls of beautiful polished rock, leading to another waterfall to descend. This is the last large rappel of the canyon and descends next to the flow into a clear and still pool where each rock is visible on the bottom. A huge cliff towers above the pool with a very unique Western Hemlock tree with five straight stems perched right on top and many other hemlock trees on the slopes. The exit to the pool is decorated by two curved logs spanning the entirety of the canyon and providing a delicate balance to the whole otherworldly scene. This is truly a magical place.
The beauty of the canyon continues through the walk out featuring forested cliffs, small waterfalls and a very pretty section of red bedrock. There is one more small rappel before the creek exits out into the Skykomish River near where we crossed. It’s a short walk from there back to the swimming hole and the parked cars.
On the way out, I picked some of the mushrooms to identify and learned they are edible but not super tasty. Fortunately, mushroom season was just beginning!
