EXPLORING THE INCREDIBLE Panther Creek Falls! | Waterfall Hike | Gifford Pinchot | Washington | 4K

I did this on May 17, 2024. Panther Creek Falls is a WORLD CLASS TOP TIER short Waterfall Hike just a few minutes down the road from Panther Creek Campground! The infrastructure signage leads a little something to be desired - there is an unmarked parking lot on the shoulder of the road to the right to park, and then you cross the street backtracking to a little trailhead with poor signage, essentially following a white spray painted arrow on the road to your trailhead. Once you get on the trail, you will shortly come to a fork in the trail - to the right takes you to the Upper Viewpoint of Panther Creek Falls, to the left initially takes you up and then ultimately down through the Forest to the Lower Viewpoint of Panther Creek Falls. The path to the Lower Viewpoint does have some steep drop offs, so one should practice situational awareness when descending to the Lower Viewpoint. It never felt unsafe to me and it wasn't what I would call super sketchy, if felt well designed and ultimately quite safe, but you probably wouldn't want to take a squirrelly kiddo down there, but with a safety mentality it is safe for the whole family in my opinion. If you come to Panther Creek Falls, I would highly recommend doing both the Upper and Lower Viewpoints, they are both world class vantage points of Panther Creek Falls and it is most definitely without a doubt worth doing both. If you do both, it is approximately 0.7 Miles Roundtrip and approximately 250 FT Elevation Gain. Panther Creek Falls is a hidden gem in Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the great State of Washington and a world class top tier Waterfall!

Panther Creek Campground is nestled in old growth Gifford Pinchot National Forest and without a doubt is in the top tier of Campgrounds in Gifford Pinchot National Forest! There are 33 Campsites - with several on the Panther Creek Shoreline or with short side trails directly to the Shoreline. Panther Creek Campground Campsites are reservable at Recreation.gov.

Just a couple minutes down the road from Panther Creek Campground, on the East side (right side) of the road there are several very high quality free dispersed Camping sites right up against Panther Creek! I stopped and reviewed two that were right up against the creek on each side of Panther Creek - there were a few more Campsites that were occupied, my estimate would be around 5 - 7 range total overall.