Kennedy Falls

We thought we’d be discovering. We thought we’d be exploring trails no longer traveled, finding a long forgotten waterfall at the end of a an uncertain journey. But after being prominently featured on various hiking sites about 3 years ago the trail to Kennedy Falls no longer offers the touted solitude and we were running into droves of other people hungry for adventure.

However, don’t be disappointed or discouraged from doing this hike. For a small investment of 4 hours what you get in return, without much sweat, is a beautiful hike taking you through some impressive old-growth forest. Left and right you will see stumps of once giant trees that had been cut down during the days when sustainability was not am item of consideration. Under your feet remnants of an old road, reinforced with cedar planks, now slanted, are slowly dissolving back into the forest floor.

Starting at the top of Mountain Highway and from the Mt. Fromme mountain biking parking lot, take Big Cedar Trail (on your right, marked). After about 4km (1 hour if you are a fast hiker) you’ll arrive at a massive tree which gave the trail its name.

You can either call it a day or continue on to Kennedy Falls, another 45 mins or so away. Karl Woll of Outdoor Vancouver did a fantastic job describing the route of how to get to Kennedy Falls that so I won’t be repeating it here but just to sum up:

Kennedy Falls are fairly easy to find following that description, alternatively, follow the trail markers; the falls have moved past the “local secret” stage and now see a steady traffic and have a well defined trail.

Despite that, the beautiful waterfalls with azure blue deep pools are still worth a visit. If you have time and are hungry for more adventure, on your way back, instead of going out the same way turn left at the Big Cedar going towards the Lynn Creek (the trail is marked).

If the water levels allow, you can ford the river to the other side and come out via a different trail – Cedar Mills trail in the Lynn Headwaters Park, see this map. This is a interesting add-on to your hike but will require a creek crossing and a car shuttle. Or just take transit. In any case, a great day out.

Getting there:

Bus #210 will get to to within 100m from the Mt. Fromme parking lot.
Bus #228 will take you from Lynn Headwaters back to civilization, if you opt for exiting via Lynn Creek. But do check with Translink for the latest.