Burney Falls
Interesting facts
- The cliffs behind the curtain of water are one of the few known nesting sites of the black swift.
- In the 1988 fantasy film Willow only half of Burney Falls appears on screen; the other half was removed digitally.
- Before Willow, the falls had already appeared in The Parson and the Outlaw (1957) and Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958).
- The railroad bridge from the 1986 film Stand by Me crosses Lake Britton just outside the park, on the old McCloud River Railroad.
- Hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail can use the park store as a general-delivery mailing address to collect resupply parcels.
- Burney Creek is the only place in the park where fishing is allowed, and the pool below the falls is fished on a catch-and-release basis.
- A short trail from the falls down to Lake Britton passes through mixed conifer forest and patches of white diatomaceous earth.
Why it is worth it
Burney Falls does not depend on rain or snow from one week to the next. Much of its water bursts straight out of the cliff face itself: springs emerging from porous volcanic rock above and across the falls add hundreds of silvery threads to the main stream of Burney Creek, so that a veil of water some 129 feet (39 m) high and around 250 feet wide drops into a deep, misty basin in the forests of northern California. The flow, about 100 million gallons a day, stays almost constant even through the dry summer.
The secret lies underground. The surrounding landscape, where the Cascade Range meets the Modoc Plateau, is built of layered basalt laid down by volcanic activity more than a million years ago. This rock soaks up rain and snowmelt like a sponge, forming a large reservoir that leaks out as springs at and above the falls. Geologists cite Burney Falls as a textbook example of a stream fed by springs controlled by rock layers, and of a waterfall formed as softer horizontal strata are undercut beneath harder ones. The water is cold, rarely rising above about 42°F, and below the falls Burney Creek runs on to Lake Britton, a reservoir on the Pit River.
The falls take their name from Samuel Burney, a settler who lived in the area in the 1850s. The McArthur family, who arrived later in the 19th century, bought the land to save it from development and gave it to the state in the 1920s, creating what is now McArthur–Burney Falls Memorial State Park, the second-oldest park in the California system. Theodore Roosevelt is said to have called the falls the eighth wonder of the world, and they were declared a National Natural Landmark in 1954. The Pacific Crest Trail passes through the park, and the falls have appeared on screen, including in scenes of "Willow" (1988).
Getting there
Burney Falls lies in McArthur–Burney Falls Memorial State Park in Shasta County, California, about 6 miles (10 km) north of the town of Burney. Redding is about 78 km away, and the nearest airport is Redding Municipal Airport (RDD), also about 78 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Burney Falls is a waterfall on Burney Creek, within McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, in Shasta County, California.
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