RHH's photos with the keyword: racehorse creek

This is Racehorse Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Nooksack River. Racehorse Falls is located upstream near the notch in the distant trees. We were there recently with a group of school kids doing some fossil hunting and exploring of the geology.

Racehorse Falls is not far from where we live and in the foothills of the North Cascades. Racehorse Creek, the creek on which the falls is found feeds the North Fork Nooksack River. The falls is named for the shape of a horse's head which can be seen to the left of the falls in this photo. When we visited the falls last, at the time of this photo, there was not a lot of water coming over. At snowmelt time, however, the falls are much more spectacular than this.

Racehorse Falls is in the foothills of the North Cascades, not very far from where we live. It is named for the horse-head shaped opening to the left of the falls, not visible here. We were there in March with a friend who had not seen the falls before and due to an abundance of rain there was more water coming over the falls than I've ever seen. It is quite an adventure getting to the base of the falls when the water is high, though somewhat easier on the other side of the creek. Racehorse Creek is a tributary of the North Fork Nooksack River.

Racehorse Falls is named for the outline of a horse's head that appears to the left of the falls in this photo. The falls are on Racehorse Creek not far from where the creek empties into the North Fork Nooksack River. The falls drop 139 feet in four cascades and at the base of this part of the falls there is a large pool. My wife and I were there this summer with Edward's girlfriend and another family friend and after crossing the creek and climbing up to the pool the three girls decided to go swimming (pictures of them swimming can be found at the link below). The days was very warm and we had climbed Slide Mountain earlier, so I am sure the water felt wonderful, but I decided to stay dry. Slide Mountain (located above the falls) and the falls themselves are one of our favorite places for a day's exploring. Do you see the horse's head?

This and the next picture are the last two I'm posting from Slide Mountain and Racehorse Creek. I liked the tones and the light on the water and thought it worth posting for those reasons.

These mushrooms were photographed near Racehorse falls on a log that appeared to have rolled. I believe, therefore, that these are the bottoms of mushrooms which I've tentatively identified as Panellus serotinus, the Late Fall Oyster Mushroom.

This is Racehorse Creek below the falls shown in the inset picture. This area was heavily overgrown until 2009 when a flash flood caused by a landslide scoured out the area and deposited a lot of fallen timber and boulders in the area.

Here's another shot of Racehorse Falls, a falls on Racehorse Creek, one of the tributaries of the North Fork Nooksack River in Whatcom County, Washington. There is not much of a trail to the falls but they are not far off the North Fork Road and with a bit of scrambling can be reached rather easily, less so when the water is higher. This photo show again the hole in the rock next to the falls from which the falls gets its name. The falls are about 100 feet tall.

To the left of the falls is reason for the falls' name. The hole in the rock there does resemble the head of racehorse, though the hole is not always visible when there is more water coming over the falls. Interestingly, another falls further up the creek is named Triple Crown Falls. These falls are in the area of Slide Mountain where we went fossil-hunting, though this photo was taken on another visit to the area. The landslide we searched for fossils is further up the stream and above and to the right side of the picture, on the side of Slide Mountain. In fact, when the landslide occurred on January 5, 2009, the creek was temporarily blocked by the slide and when the water finally broke through caused a flood of water, rocks and trees to come down the creek and over the falls, scouring out the area and changing the landscape. The area of the falls was overgrown with trees at that time but was opened up by the landslide and its results and fossils can be found here as well. In fact, a huge fossil of bird tracks found here is now on display at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Last Saturday, November 9, son Edward and I hiked around Slide Mountain and the Racehorse Creek landslide, looking for fossils. The hike was more of a muddy scramble than anything else, but we found plenty of fossils and also met up with some of Edward's co-workers and spent most of the afternoon with them doing some more fossil hunting and exploring. The Racehorse Creek landslide happened on January 5, 2009, after a days of warm stormy weather and rain (what we call here a Pineapple Express). About 500,000 cubit feet of rock and earth slid down the mountain and into Racehorse Creek temporarily blocking the Creek and two days later causing a massive flood of water, rock and timber down Racehorse Creek. The landslide left a 350 foot cliff in the side of the mountain and uncovered thousands of Eocene fossils, mostly of plants, though bird tracks have also been found. The debris field itself is a jumble of boulders and timber and the best place to look for fossils, though it requires some serious scrambling, but the fossils can be found all over the mountain and we looked in several other places as well. The area is layers of soft carbonaceous shale which quickly weathers and crumbles and Chuckanut sandstone. The fossils are found in both with inclusions of coal as well. This is a photo of a whole palm frond and pieces of other fronds in shale. The rock is around four feet long and several feet wide, to give an indication of scale, and many of these fossils are massive.