South Falls

South Falls can be seen from several viewpoints along the rim of the Silver Creek Canyon. Its waterfall is the most popular in the park, and drops 177 feet. A loop trail meanders down to a footbridge over the south fork of Silver Creek.

Winter/Spring visitors have often commented on the sound and feel of this thundering falls as they step off of the Lodge's verandah. Hike under, along a paved trail (with handrail). This is the upper most falls on the South Fork of Silver Creek. Geologist's have age-dated this lava flow to be the same as that for North Falls. This rock ledge looks a lot different, but close examination will reveal the same presence of tree casts. The dominant features observed are the large erosional chimneys. Geologist's would describe this rock as "vesicular basalt". They would interpret the presence of many air bubbles as evidence that a lot of wet mud was overrun by the lava flow, creating small pockets of steam which formed the holes in the rock that we see today. Water seeping into and freezing in these numerous small holes would rapidly break the rock, creating the large "chimneys".