McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park

McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park is in volcano country in California, in between Mount Shasta and Lassen National Park. The park features a stunning waterfall, which the parks service describes in the blurb below:

The park's centerpiece is the 129-foot Burney Falls, which is not the highest or largest waterfall in the state, but possibly the most beautiful. Additional water comes from springs, joining to create a mist-filled basin. Burney Creek originates from the park's underground springs and flows to Lake Britton, getting larger along the way to the majestic falls.

The park's landscape was created by volcanic activity as well as erosion from weather and streams. This volcanic region is surrounded by mountain peaks and is covered by black volcanic rock, or basalt. Created over a million years ago, the layered, porous basalt retains rainwater and snow melt, which forms a large underground reservoir.

Within the park, the water emerges as springs at and above Burney Falls, where it flows at 100 million gallons every day.

While my mom was painting the falls, I combined two loop trails, for a total of about 5.6 miles. See mom's painting and my trail descriptions after the jump!

The painting featured here was painted by my mother, who embarked on this road trip with me. She painted Burney Falls from the Falls Overlook.

Headwaters Trail and Falls Loop

The upstream loop

Most people in the park just do the Falls Loop Trail, but I was up for something a little longer. Starting from the Falls Overlook, I headed to the left and found the trailhead for the Headwaters Trail. This trail was really cool because of the Swifts that were flying in impressive acrobatics over the still headwaters of Burney Creek, scooping up insects.

The Headwaters Trail merges with the famous Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at the footbridge.

I was really excited to get to be on the PCT, however briefly, because it is just such a cool trail: all the way from Mexico to Canada! I followed it back towards the falls on the opposite side of Burney Creek from what I had already hiked. I passed a backpacking camp there, which seemed to also include support vehicles for people on the PCT.

At the next intersection I took a right to head back to the Falls Loop Trail. Rather than crossing the fisherman's bridge, I headed downhill to cross the Rainbow Bridge. I did follow the Falls Loop Trail towards the lower observation area. This offered a different vantage point than the Overview where my mom was painting. Rather than head back to the parking lot, I retraced my steps north to start a second loop, as I will detail below.

This loop was pretty easy, although there was some elevation change.

Burney Creek and Rim Trail Loop

The downstream loop

I headed back downstream from the falls, retracing my steps just a little. When the  the other hikers crossed the Rainbow Bridge, I stayed straight on Burney Creek Trail heading north to Lake Britton

The vast majority of hikers only do the Falls Loop Trail. I did see a few other hikers on the upstream loop, but I was the only hiker on the downstream loop. It was really nice!

There is a beautiful forest of ponderosa pine and prominent outcroppings of a white rock called diatomite, which is composed of silica skeletons of ancient microscopic algae.

While I was heading back to the day use area via the Rim Trail, I saw an osprey nest. (It started raining around that time, so I did not get a photo.) Apparently this park usually gets bald eagles in the winter!

This park gets a lot of use because the waterfalls are pretty well known. It was relatively crowded, even on a rainy day. It's easy to see why the park is so popular!