Clearwater Falls

High up in the Umpqua River drainage, the springfed Clearwater River bubbles out of the ground and starts flowing through placid pools and never ending logjams. The first real interuption in the course of the Clearwater is this exceptionally scenic but not terribly impressive 29 foot cascade. The ground around the falls is permeated with soft soil and thousands of intertwined roots, allowing the river to seap in and out of the ground at will. The result is a waterfall that appears to be springing from the ground. While there is only about 10 feet of legitimate vertical waterfall here, this is one of the few cases where we bend the rules to allow the mossy cascades below the falls to be included as part of the falls, largely because the river is dead calm both above and below, and it is easy to identify where the falls begin and end.