Salmon Falls, Natural Water Slide and the Little Tea Cups in Sequoia National Forest

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 4:35 pm

Last week I spent 3 days in Kernville hiking with my crazy wild Wednesday group. Most of us stayed at the Kern Riverfront Lodge with a balcony view of the river. Our first destination was Salmon Falls. We started at the Rincon Trail so that we could get a nice view of both the upper and lower falls. Getting to the upper falls is a longer hike, very strenuous with lots of off-trail scrambling. Since we had other places to visit, we hiked the shorter route to a nice observation point on top of a rock outcropping. To get to the lower falls required an additional 3 hours. The trail is a consistent climb that provides very little shade, but there was a small bridge that crossed over Salmon Creek. We stopped to cool off in the stream and have our ritual water fights.

Salmon Creek

A cute Horny Toad

First view of both Upper and Lower Salmon Falls

Close-up view of the Upper Falls from the rock outcropping we climbed.

We drove to our next location not far from the falls to see the Natural Water Slide. This was the perfect place to cool off and have some fun dipping into the water pools. It's a slick rock at the top and with the force of the water it pushes you down the slide into a deep pool. With the help of friendly people and a short rope tied to a tree we were able to exit the pool safely.

Here's a short video:

Across the road from the Water Slide trailhead was a short scramble down a use path to the Little Tea Cups.

Post by **dima** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 10:39 am

Neat! The tea cup area looks familiar. Is that Peppermint creek, or do all those places look the same?

Post by **dima** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 10:52 am

Oh, never mind. I just saw your other post. The thing at Peppermint creek is a much lesser version of where you went.

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Mon Jul 15, 2019 11:05 am

dima wrote: Neat! The tea cup area looks familiar. Is that Peppermint creek, or do all those places look the same?

We were supposed to go to Peppermint Falls but ran out of time. The last two pics are of the Little Tea Cups that are located in a different area from the bigger Seven Tea Cups.

Tom Kenney · Post by **Tom Kenney** » Tue Jul 16, 2019 3:39 pm

Too bad you skipped Peppermint. It's pretty close to the road, and quite spectacular. There's also a big cascade upstream from Lower Peppermint CG. And it's worth a trip up that road to view The Needles from below.

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Wed Jul 17, 2019 1:51 pm

Tom Kenney wrote: Too bad you skipped Peppermint. It's pretty close to the road, and quite spectacular. There's also a big cascade upstream from Lower Peppermint CG. And it's worth a trip up that road to view The Needles from below.

I saw a video of Peppermint Falls. It looks beautiful. The leader of the group was trying to persuade us that it was a short hike but it was late and we were all too exhausted.
It will have to wait until next year unless I get an opportunity to go again soon.

Post by **tekewin** » Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:11 pm

Wow, that's a pretty area.