Whiskeytown Falls
Whiskeytown NRA, Redding · near Redding · Shasta Cascade
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 3.4 miles
- Elevation gain
- 700 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Spring (Mar–May) for peak flow · Hot low-elevation summer
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- Yes
- How the permit works
- Whiskeytown NRA entrance fee (~$25/vehicle 7-day) or a federal pass. Leashed dogs allowed on this trail. Much of the forest burned in the 2018 Carr Fire and is regrowing (open canopy).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- 220-ft three-tiered waterfall · 'Rediscovered' in 2004 · Forest climb (James K. Carr Trail) · Carr Fire regrowth
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Come in spring — by late summer the falls thin to a trickle and the exposed burned slopes bake.
The guide
A 220-foot cascade that was essentially lost to the maps until 2004, now the headline hike of the Redding side. The graded clim…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Whiskeytown Falls — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 40.6486, -122.6578