Golden Cascades is located in Big Basin Redwood State Park. This is the first of three waterfalls on Berry Creek. Golden Cascades consists of three separate drops. The first drop is a slide about 20 feet high. The rock under the falls is yellowish orange, which is likely the inspiration for the name. The second drop is the highest, but also the least steep. The water slides down about 30 feet here. The water spread thin across the rock when the creek is low. The last drop is a plunge of less than 10 feet high.

Golden Cascades is located just above Silver Falls. Once you climb up to the top Silver Falls the final plunge of Golden Cascades is about 20 feet in front of you. The trail continues up past the next two sections of the cascades. Silver Falls is a half mile above Berry Creek Falls, which is 5 miles from the trailhead.

This part of California does not get much rain in the summer. Golden Cascades is on the smaller west branch of Berry Creek. In early June the flow was very thin. This waterfall is best seen in winter or early spring.

Silver Falls is just downstream and the bigger Berry Creek Falls are less than a mile downstream. The small Sempervirens Falls is also in the park. There are a multitude of falls in the area, although most of them are seasonal. The excellent waterfallswest.com has pictures and descriptions of many of them. The spectacular waterfalls of Yosemite are only a few hours away as well. Alamere Falls is about a two hour drive to the north.

Photo Gallery

Upper Drop	Middle Drop
Middle Drop	Last Drop

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Last Modified: Monday, 05-Dec-2011 19:51:23 MST.