About Slave Falls
Slave Falls was a trickling waterfall during our visit in Autumn 2012. Based on this experience, I’d have to say you have to come during Spring or immediately after a significant rain event if you want to see this waterfall as more than a puny trickle.
The falls is said to be 60ft as it freefalls into a large alcove. Unlike at Yahoo Falls, this trail ended at a fence discouraging further access into the alcove. So although it physically looked possible to go behind the waterfall, infrastructure was put in to not sanction it.
Speaking of alcoves, I learned that the reason why this waterfall was called Slave Falls was because during pre-Civil War times, slaves would hide in the many alcoves here to avoid capture. We noticed there were at least three such alcoves along the trail leading to the falls. I’m sure there are probably more of them outside of the trail system.
The trail we took to this waterfall began at the Sawmill Trailhead (see directions below) and was about 1.3 miles one-way. There was actually a trail junction at the 1.1-mile point of the hike where we could continue for 0.2 miles to the left for the waterfall or 0.2 miles to the right for Needle Arch.
Since the waterfall was disappointing during our visit, we were keen to visit Needle Arch, which was a small but attractive natural arch surrounded by trees. So the total overall hiking distance was probably about 2.8 to 3 miles. We didn’t do the longer Slave Falls/Needle Arch loop as we were content to visit just the arch and the falls before returning to the trailhead.
The out-and-back Y-shaped route that we took was generally downhill en route to each of the attractions and all uphill on the way back to the car park. However, the elevation gain was gradual and not terribly strenuous. All in all, we spent about 1 hour 45 minutes for both the hike and all the picture-taking.
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