North Fork Falls (American River)
Western Sierra slope (Auburn area) · near Colfax / Auburn · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Swimming & Hot Springs
At a glance
- Temperature
- 58–70°F
- Cost
- FREE
- Season
- July–September (low flows)
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
- Safety
- Cliff jumps here range 10–25 feet — always scout depth first, every visit; rivers rearrange their bottoms yearly. The upper pool requires a rock scramble.
Swimming & Hot Springs detail
- Type
- swimming-hole
- Temp
- cold
- Clothing optional
- No
- Directions
- On a North Fork American tributary in the Auburn/Colfax foothills — a forested descent to a series of cascades and pools. Research the current preferred trailhead locally; access points shift.
- Pools
- A stairway of clear pools and cascades under evergreen forest — family-friendly lower pools reached easily from the trail, and an upper waterfall pool with the big jump for the bold.
- Intl tip
- Pairs with an Auburn or Colfax stop on the I-80 corridor — this stretch of foothills hides dozens of pools for those willing to walk. The Stevens Trail out of Colfax is the area's other classic river-canyon walk.
The guide
North Fork Falls is the Gold Country's cliff-jumper — a secluded stairway of snowmelt pools and cascades on the North Fork Amer…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to North Fork Falls (American River) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.108, -120.928