Diamond Creek Falls

The beginning of this trail starts at the parking lot of Salt Creek Falls, right off of the 58 freeway. During the winter months, there's a gate blocking the road to the parking lot. You can park at the gate and it's a 0.6 mile walk to the beginning of the Salt Creek Falls trailhead. If you haven't seen Salt Creek Falls, the second tallest waterfall in Oregon cascading 286 feet, please do. It's only a few 100 feet from the parking lot and is quite a powerful sight.

To start the Diamond Creek Falls trail, head 200 feet from the parking lot towards Salt Creek and after passing through some picnic tables and campsites, you'll cross a wooden bridge over the creek. In 200 feet to the right, you will see a sign designating the start of the trail to Diamond Creek Falls. The trail is a 3 mile loop, with a 1.8 mile journey until you reach the falls. This trail is very well marked with blue diamonds posted on trees every couple hundred feet throughout the whole trail, so it's very hard to get lost. In the first quarter mile, you will go through some mild elevation gain, which then peaks and turns into a relatively flat hike until you reach the falls. 0.2 miles into the hike, you come across Too Much Bear Lake on your left. It's a little off trail, but you can see it through the trees if you'd like to check it out up close.

Throughout the hike, you will come across numerous well marked viewpoints of Salt Creek Canyon and a few other falls. Around 1.2 miles into the hike, you will see and hear some larger falls down in the canyon, but this is not Diamond Creek Falls (I thought this had to be the main falls and desperately searched for a way to get down to them, but large cliffs seemed the only way down. Don't worry, the main attraction isn't too far ahead.) As you continue on the trail, you will come along a sign designating Lower Diamond Creek Falls. It's a 0.2 mile hike down to the base of the falls where you can literally touch the waterfall. I'd highly recommend not passing this option up.

After checking out the base of the falls and returning to the trail, it's 1.2 mile trek back to the start of the trail. In a few minutes, you will see an elevated viewpoint of Diamond Creek Falls to your right. From the viewpoint, the path back starts with a slight gain of elevation, but after 0.2 miles, it will become a downhill all the way to your starting point.