Adventure & Outdoors
A flat forest walk along an emerald creek to a waterfall that roars in spring and turns swimmable by late summer.
Gold Creek day-use area, Golden Ears Provincial Park, north of Maple Ridge
More infoGolden Ears is large, famous and busy, and the Lower Falls walk is the version that asks almost nothing of your legs. From the Gold Creek lot a wide, mostly flat path follows an emerald creek to a viewing platform where Lower Falls drops over a rock shelf, about 5.5 km round trip. By late summer it mellows into a swimmable pool, current and slick rocks permitting.
Start at the Gold Creek day-use lot at the far end of Golden Ears (follow Fern Crescent past the park gates; the lot is the last one on the right and fills early on summer weekends, so come early in the day). The Lower Falls trail is a wide, nearly flat 5.5 km round trip along Gold Creek with only about 110 m of gain, so you can actually walk side by side and talk. Don't miss the lower viewing platform where the falls drop over a rock shelf, and the unmarked creek-side gravel bars just before it that are the best photo spots and a perfect picnic perch. In late summer the pool below the falls is swimmable, but the rocks are slick and the current is real, so stay shallow. Short on time? Walk just 10 to 15 minutes in to the first creek bench and turn around; you still get the emerald water without the full out-and-back.
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