Jack Creek Falls

Jack Creek Falls was a bouldery waterfall that appeared to require some precise timing in order to see it perform. In our case, we thought that a series of saturation storms in the span of a little over a half-week signaling what appeared to be the start of the long-awaited El Nino rains would revive the falls. But as you can see from the photos on this page, even those storms couldn’t undo four years of drought. In fact, the bouldery underbelly of the path of Jack Creek was probably one of the biggest reasons why serious timing was required in the first place, as any bit of water that would flow would find gaps beneath the boulders thereby be hidden from sight or the camera lens. When I did manage to get up to the base of the waterfall, I did see that there was a little bit of a trickle in the stream, but the only way this falls would be photogenic would be during a heavy rain storm where a flash flood or a swollen stream would have enough volume to flow over the boulders instead of hidden beneath them.

While the lackluster performance of Jack Creek Falls might make one wonder why we went this far from Los Angeles to see it, we actually visited Legoland the day before. It turned out that this was one of the closest and accessible waterfalls that we knew of to the city of Carlsbad so that was the primary reason why we made the detour to come here. In any case, the accessibility of this waterfall also meant that our daughter was able to make the short 1/4-mile hike (maybe 1/2-mile round trip) though she too was not impressed by the lack of water.

The “hike” started from the nearest car park and picnic area to the entrance kiosk for the Dixon Lake Recreation Area (see directions below). From there, we followed the paved road past a couple of signs towards the “Primitive Area”, where we then saw a not-so-obvious path to the so-called “Grand Loop Trail”, which was said to be 2.4 miles total. Fortunately, the signage was close enough to the road to orient us.

It turned out that Jack Creek Falls wouldn’t require doing the entire hike, but the scenery would probably be enough to make the whole hike worthwhile. So after following the somewhat faint trail that went right across another paved road then across a handful of sloped and stepped paths leading to our left downhill towards a lawn and picnic area, we then finally made our descent towards the very end just beyond the picnic area. That was when we then took the steps down to a more conventional trail that skirted a ravine overlooking what turned out to be Jack Creek. A short distance after passing a numerically-signed jumble of giant rocks, we then got our first glimpse of the bouldery stream where Jack Creek Falls was supposed to be.

In order to get closer to the waterfall (which didn’t look suitable for toddlers so Julie and Tahia turned back), I continued further along the trail, where I was able to see the man-made Dixon Lake in the distance. As the trail made its short descent, I encountered a junction where I took the left fork that led me down to a bridge. On the far side of the bridge, I then left the obvious trail and took a different trail following along Jack Creek. When I got between the signposts 8 and 9, I then scrambled my way through prickly vegetation, fallen boulders, and stagnant pools before finally reaching the base of Jack Creek Falls.

After having my fill of the barely trickling waterfall, I then returned the way I came back to the footbridge, and then back to the signposted jumble of giant rocks. Again, I could have continued doing the loop hike, which would have brought me closer to the shores of Dixon Lake (where I saw some people fishing), but I opted not to prolong the excursion. Once I got past the giant rocks, I then went back uphill on the trail, except this time, I decided to continue climbing up the hill as it looked like there was an open area up there. And when I did get up to the top of the short slope, I found myself in a field adjacent to the picnic area and car park. So in hindsight, I put the word “hike” in quotes because you can argue that this wasn’t really much of a hike (except for the stream scrambling to get close to Jack Creek Falls).

Even though we wound up spending about 45 minutes away from the car, it could have taken far less time to experience the falls, which was why I downgraded the difficulty of this waterfall.