The hike to Crooked Falls is short and sweet, so it’s great when you fancy a quick-ish adventure on soggy days. We did this on one of those rainy days with a mix of giant soppy raindrops, followed by soft rain and mist. The trail turned into a stream, so we both had wet feet and we didn’t see any views. Despite this, it was a beautiful trail and we had a fabulous time. It might be because we visited right at the end of a rainstorm, but Crooked Falls was incredible. You can get right up close to this massive cascade of water down a large cliff.

I totally recommend visited Crooked Falls on horrible, rainy days; Just make sure you bring waterproof clothes.

Crooked Falls Map

Crooked Falls – the basics

Distance: 6km 
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 500m
High Point: 460m
Time: 3-3.5 hours
What to bring:  
Water, snacks and your camera!
We brought the 10 essentials.
Facilities: No facilities.
Dogs: Dog friendly
How hard is it? Intermediate; There are a couple of steep parts where you might need to use your hands to scramble up the rocks. But the trail is obvious and not very long.
Maps: I’ve included the AllTrails map above, but it often does not work in the Squamish Valley. I found looking at the trail on Maps.me worked better.

Crooked Falls – Getting started

From Squamish, head North on the Highway 99, then turn off onto Squamish Valley Road. After a while, the road turns into a gravel forest service road (but it isn’t too dodgy so you don’t need 4×4.) Turn left at the first bridge across the Squamish River onto Ashlu Road. You can park at the sigurd trail trailhead. There is space at the side of the road for several vehicles.

The start of the trail was reeeally wet! We did this walk in October and it felt like we were hiking up a stream. It is probably very similar in the springtime.

Mossy Heaven

Lots of the walks in the Squamish Valley have pretty impressive moss, but this one is exceptional. In some parts of the forest the trees are completely covered in drooping mosses. High Falls Creek is another fabulous moss filled wonderland if you like this sort of thing.

Impressive Scenery

We didn’t see the views over Squamish, but the scenery was still great. There are several giant boulders along the trail, and cliffs that had turned into their own mini waterfalls in the rain.

The first 1.5km are not very steep, but then after that, the path gets a bit steeper and more challenging. There are bright orange markers on the trees to show the way, so if you keep your eyes peeled for them, you won’t get lost.

Old Growth Trees

It’s always a pleasure to find old growth trees, but some of the Douglas Fir trees along this trail were truly impressive specimens.

Trail to Crooked Falls

The trail to Crooked Falls has three sections. First is an easy stretch along an old logging road. Then it gets a little steeper and tougher as you haul yourself up 300m in about 1km. There are a few places where you need to use your hands, but it’s not super difficult. The final section is an undulating path through the forest where you keep climbing up, then dropping down again as the path winds its way along the cliffs.

Once you see this sign, you’re almost there! You’ll start to hear the crash of water from Crooked Falls.

Side view of Crooked Falls

The most obvious view when you reach Crooked Falls is from the side. There are trees on one side and a moss-covered cliff on the other that frame the waterfall as it thunders down the mountain. Lots of people stop here. It’s an impressive sight! However, if you climb up the bank to the left of this photo, there is a second more open view of the falls.

The rain was chucking it down by this point, and the waterfall splashed me from all directions. This might be the wettest I have ever been during a hike!

This is the view from where I was standing in the jump photo above. My photo is a bit blurry as my lens got a bit wet. Still, it’s a great gushing waterfall eh!?

Why is Crooked Falls crooked?

You can’t really tell from my photos, so I’ll add a video from instagram. Crooked Falls twists at this viewpoint and continues down the mountain in a different direction. It then twists again lower down, to continue off in another direction. You can’t tell from this, but there is even more to this waterfall high above the section we saw. It would be fun to send a drone up to see more!

 

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There was soo much rain and splash back from the waterfall, that we didn’t stop for snacks to admire the view like we normally do. We were so soggy that we knew we’d freeze if we stayed still…so we headed back down the trail again.

Mushrooms along the trail

As with other autumnal walks, we saw plenty of mushrooms hiding in the moss. If you’d like to see way cooler mushrooms, take a peek at my previous post about Parkhurst Ghost Town, Shadow Lake, or even from when we went on a mushroom foraging tour.

Mr Toad

The last cool little dude we met along the trail was this beautiful toad. We might have been a bit wet, but he seemed to be enjoying his day out in the mud and rain.

I love waterfalls! Marc and I have slowly been hiking to as many we can, so we have seen a lot of good’uns. If you like the look of Crooked Falls, then I am happy to share my map with loooads more that we have found in British Columbia. Green waterfalls are ones that don’t require any walking. Blue are easy walks, and Dark Blue are waterfalls with intermediate walks to reach them.

I hope you like the look of our incredibly soggy hike to Crooked Falls. If you can force yourself to leave home and go on a mini adventure on a rainy day, this is a great place to start! What do you think? Would you venture out in the rain, or wait for a sunny day?