* (rock-climbing to the top waterfall up the side: ****)
driving directions:
From I-15, Take Hwy 138 to Lone Pine Canyon Rd, make left onto Lone Pine Canyon Rd and go about 2-3 miles to Swarthout Canyon Rd (dirt) on your left. Take the latter rd 2 miles to an unmarked rd called Sheep Canyon Rd (dirt) near a large white tank out to the right. Take Sheep Canyon Rd 3 miles to Lytle Creek Rd (paved). Make a left on Lytle Creek Rd and go about a mile or so down to Middle Fork Rd, take a right. Go three miles down this road (dirt), staying out of the canyon and park at the trailhead and parking lot where there is a map of the area and other info in some display cases out there. Or, take I-15 to Sierra, exit, make right at stop sign and go up into Lytle Creek on Lytle Creek Rd. Turn left at Middle Fork Rd, and go 3 miles to parking area (this is the quicker way to go).
hiking route:
Take the trail, when it splits, take either way, but Stone House is shadier and closer to the creek, go maybe about 2 miles (a guess) on the trail and then there is this creek crossing where someone has put some fairly small logs there and there is another good crossing just a few feet downstream, go across and hike up the creek directly in line with and slightly to the left of the crossing. Go maybe 1000ft or so rock-hopping the creek and the falls are in front of you.
details:
It may be difficult to find the falls, not many people, even people just hiking a few hundred feet from them know about them. There are three falls/water slides stacked on top of each other, all are about the same height - 30 ft or so each, you can only see the first two from the bottom, you can hike up to the top of the lower fall from the side and you can rock-climb from a little further up the side to the top of the hill nearby and down to the top fall, one slip and you fall. But it is a cool view because at the bottom of the top fall there is a little pool, which is inaccessible to most people, except crazy people, without ropes and junk. I've got no pictures of this because I could not worry about carrying a camera while rock climbing without ropes on loose rock. An alternate and safer way to get to the top fall is to continue hiking up the cucamonga peak trail maybe 1/4mile to this switchback where there is a large fallen tree as part of the switchback and hike straight up the steep rocky small hill opposite the fallen tree (up the hill on the left side of the trail), then just kind of go straight downhill and you should run into the creek and the top of the falls. If you have ropes, it would be cool to repell into the 54°F pool below.
THE HIKE: Lytle Creek Falls via Cucamonga Peak Trail on July 22, 2000
This is the creek a short distance below the falls. The pictures came out kind of faded because of the low light conditions from the shade. Some didn't even come out at all.
Here's a good shot of the lower of the three falls.
Here's the lower falls again. You can only see the bottom two waterfalls from the bottom.
Here's a side shot of the lower falls.
This is a shallow pool at the bottom of the lower fall, the pool is usually larger, so we built a dam in the forground to make it a little bigger. The water was a cold 54F though.
Here's the top of the lower fall and the middle fall; the top fall is above the middle fall (duh) and to the left a little. We climbed up to the top of the top fall and that was difficult but there was an easier way.
That's me next to the lower fall.
Here's a 3ft rattlesnake we saw on the way out maybe 1/4 mile from the trailhead. Jerry chased after it so Janet could safely pass; no he just wanted to try to get bit so I could see if my snakebite kit works.
Here's a wider angle shot of where the rattlesnake was.
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