You know how sometimes you decide to try something new just for the heck of it and then, BAM, expectations blown away? Yup, that’s what happened to us when we visited Benson Creek Falls. Can’t wait to share what we found!
This probably tops my list for one of the trickiest waterfalls to hike to but when you get to the bottom, it’s totally worth it! The photo above is just one of the many falls in this area. Another nearby has a rope for you to repel down. Yes, I said repel down a waterfall! Adding that check box to my bucket list!
Alright so when I say trickiest, I mean technically tricky because of the steep drops to climb down.
Luckily there are three sets of ropes to help along the way. The first is yellow, then blue, then white. Once you’ve hit all three, you know you’re close!
I’ll include a little summary on how to get here below but check out this quirky little photo. There’s a random car tire just hanging out on the fell logs! Kind of curious where the rest of the car is…
See that log suspended above the tire? You can walk across that log to get to the waterfall that you can repel down.
Or you can be like me and stumble over the fell logs below to get to the other side. Either works!
BENSON CREEK FALLS HIKE DEETS
all details are for a roundtrip hike
Moderate
1 hour
2.3 km
Dog Friendly
92 m
★★★★
HOW TO GET TO BENSON CREEK FALLS
Definitely pack some hiking shoes that you have good confidence in for this trip! I’ve tried this trail with a few different ones and my favourites by far are the La Sportiva Bushido Trail Running Shoe. Compared to my regular hiking shoes, these are so much lighter and with the awesome grip, I feel way more confident on the trail.
There’s quite a bit of elevation change in this hike. Remember the three ropes mentioned above? Well, I definitely needed to use them – it’s pretty darn steep.
To get started on this hike, you’ll need to drive about 20 minutes Northwest of downtown Nanaimo. The road is paved the entire way so if you’ve got a little put-put car like mine, you’ll totally be fine.
We just googled ‘Benson Creek Falls Parking Lot’ and it took us right to the trailhead.
HIKING THE TRAIL
If you’ve got the Alltrails App, pull up “Benson Creek Falls”. If you follow that trail, it’s spot on to get to the falls!
The trail is pretty easy for the first half.
It’s nice and wide with a few small bridges to cross as well as multiple mountain bike trail crossings. Keep going straight – just keep an eye out for mountain bikers at these crossings.
Once you come to somewhat of a T-intersection, make a right. You’ll know you’re at this point when you see the tree with two blue markings.
Not long after, you’ll pass two smaller trails on your left. Once you get to the third small trail, hang a left. The only marker I could find for this was a tree stump on the right hand side.
After this, it starts to get tricky. The path becomes narrower and the decent down the ropes begins! The first rope is yellow, then blue, then white.
Once you get past these three ropes, you’re very close. Listen for the sounds of the falls and keep heading down the path towards them.
The experience is incredibly rewarding with lots to check out. Keep exploring and you’ll find the random car tire, another waterfall that you can repel down and hopefully one day I’ll find that car that the missing tire belongs to!
Here’s another of my photos from the day, I hope this inspires you to get out and go exploring too!