North Shuswap Waterfalls | Onyx Creek Falls
Onyx falls, seen from the trail in! Its like an oasis!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
Onyx Creek Falls | The North Shuswap
Located near the base of the infamous Crowfoot Mountain and Mount Evans, nestled in a rich, luxuriant, pristine forest is a rainforest valley reminiscent of the coastal woodlands and is a magical experience like none other!
The adventure to Onyx falls is unique because at first, you feel like this may not be anything really THAT incredible and special. The forest starts out pretty enough, a meandering pathway takes you gently through a healthy Shuswup forest mixed with hemlock, yew, and pine. A few small ferns grace the pathway. On you go, over and under fallen logs, winding along happily through a quiet and beautifully typical, somewhat dry forest.
We found the quietness to be rather odd. Were we going the right way? Wasn’t this supposed to be a moss-filled, creekside hike to an enormous waterfall? It is only 1.5 km in so why couldn’t we hear it?
A North Shuswap healthy forest mixed with hemlock, yew, and pine.
Shuswap Adventure Girl
This is a great, family- friendly hiking trail
Shuswap Adventure Girl
Onyx Creek is a great. family friendly trail. Little ones will certainly need help on the creek crossing!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
And then all at once, as you stand on top of a small ridge, looking down the trail, you are hit with an unbelievable sensory explosion! The air hits your face, cool and damp, the smell is woody, mossy, and coastal, the raging creek is loud and alive! And the forest suddenly transforms into what I could only describe as a magical fairy-like fern gully! Little trolls, elfins, and talking animals must live here!
The old-growth cedar and hemlock canopy envelops a forest floor lush with ferns, wild ginger, orchids, fungi, devils club, lush green mosses, and lichens! We counted 4 types of ferns here, one of which is the Western Sword Fern. The sword fern thrives in moist coniferous woodlands at low elevations.
The descent down the small ridge into fern gully!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The sword fern thrives in moist coniferous woodlands at low elevations.
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The forest here is part of the Inland Temperate Rainforest of British Columbia
Shuswap Adventure Girl
Gorgeous Onyx Creek!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The Unique Forest!
The forest here is part of the Inland Temperate Rainforest of British Columbia. Boasting to be globally rare, the interior cedar and hemlock rainforest is an inland rainforest, hundreds of miles from the ocean that also gets snow, which contributes to its overall precipitation. The Inland Rainforest Region is also known as the Interior wet belt. And the Shuswap is part of the Interior Cedar Hemlock (ICH) zone of the biogeoclimatic zones. Inland rainforests are unique to south-eastern British Columbia, and we have this beauty right at our fingertips in the Shuswap!
Enchanting and intertwining pathways and trails walk you through this awe-inspiring forest.
This is wild ginger!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The wild ginger is flowering!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The beautiful and diverse forest floor!
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The Thundering Falls!
Onyx Creek flows from the Monashees into Shuswap Lake and shows off its force within this valley at Onyx Falls! An incredible display of nature! The waterfall itself is enormous! And the rock walls tower high and mighty above you.
To get to the falls, visitors must cross the creek. In the springtime, when the creeks and rivers are at their peak, this can be a little bit scary for some. Visitors have to steadfastly cross on a log that can be slippery when wet. The water is rushing below you! There is a make-shift wooden railing to hold on to but know that it is quite high so a small child will have difficulty reaching it.
Onyx Creek flows from the Monashees into Shuswap Lake and shows off its force within this valley at Onyx Falls
Shuswap Adventure Girl
To get to the falls, visitors must cross the creek. In the springtime, when the creeks and rivers are at their peak, this can be a little bit scary for some! This is me, crossing.
Shuswap Adventure Girl
Visitors have to steadfastly cross on a log that can be slippery when wet. The water is rushing below you! There is a make-shift wooden railing to hold on to but know that it is quite high so a small child will have difficulty reaching it.
Shuswap Adventure Girl
The Trail Details
The trail is only about 3 km return and is an out and back trail. Meaning you go in the same way you come out. The parking is at the Crowfoot Snowmobile Parking Lot and the trail starts off in the corner here. The trailhead or trail is not currently marked and is user-maintained so hiking here is totally at your own risk. I can tell you that when you come to the only fork in the trail, stay left. We used All-Trails and Trail Forks to find the trailhead.
There are also two geocaches here to find, one being an official Backroad Map Book cache.
*** Because this trail is unmarked, directions to the trailhead can be found on All-Trails or in the Back Road Map book.
An official Backroad Map Book cache.
Shuswap Adventure Girl
Experience the North Shuswap and the thrill of the Monashee Mountains spring and summer run-off! The watershed here is vast and extraordinary. Take a peek into this gorgeous Shuswap gem!
Happy Trails!
Shuswap Adventure Girls
