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10 Seven Falls
| Fourth Fall (~40 ft)
Second Fall (~100 ft)
Third Fall (~70 ft)
Seventh Fall (70 ft.)
View of five falls (sort of)
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First Fall (~40 ft)
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Falls
Fifth Fall (60 ft.) and Sixth Fall (70 ft.)
Falls at Milsap Bar camp (~15 ft)
Falls at Milsap Bar camp (~20 ft)
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Location: Oroville, Feather Falls Scenic Area, Plumas National Forest, Butte County
Height: ~600 ft.
Access:  
Distance: 0.8 miles (RT)
Elevation: 3400 ft. (-800 ft.)
Season: Mar-Aug
Difficulty: 
Lat/Long:39.70417, -121.24372
Directions:From Oroville, take Hwy #162 east (Olive Hwy) for 6.7 miles to Forbestown Rd. Turn right and drive 6.3 miles to Lumpkin Rd. Turn left and drive 12.3 miles to Forest Road 27 on the right (0.9 miles past the Feather Falls turnoff). Follow Road 27 for 7.3 miles to the junction with Road 94. Go straight at junction, onto Road 94, and drive 6.8 miles to another junction. Turn right (still on Road 94) and drive 1.7 miles to the next junction. Continue left on Road 94 for another 2.8 miles, where you will see a signed dirt road on the left for Road 62. Turn left on Road 62 (Milsap Bar Rd) and drive 0.4 miles to another junction. Stay left on Road 62 and drive exactly 2.0 miles from here to the unsigned trailhead. You will see a large clearing on both sides of the road where you can park. You can hear the waterfall from the road. The last 2.4 miles is along a dirt road, which is rough in places, but could be driven with a car (though we would recommend a 4x4).
The trailhead can also be reached from the other direction on Milsap Bar Rd (~4.9 miles past the Milsap Bar campground). But this road is very slow going.
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Seven Falls, aka South Branch Falls, consists of a series of seven spectacular waterfalls along the South Branch Middle Fork of the Feather River, in Plumas National Forest. Each of the drops is at least 40 ft. high along a raging river in a narrow, steep, secluded canyon. The total height of all the waterfalls from highest to lowest point is around 600 ft. Getting to the waterfalls is difficult to say the least, and involves much scrambling along steep cliffs. But believe us, it is worth every effort to make the trip out to see these waterfalls. They are absolutely fantastic!
The trailhead is unmarked and not very easy to find along Milsap Bar Rd. When we were there, two old refrigerators had been dumped off the side of the road, right at the trailhead. Once you start down from the roadside a short ways, you will see that the trail is (fairly) clear and (fairly) easy to follow. It is a steep trail down to the river but short. As you get closer and closer to the river, the sound of the waterfalls gets louder and louder, and your anticipation and eagerness becomes greater and greater.
The trail emerges at the river at the base of what we are calling the Fourth Fall (an awesome 40 ft. curtain waterfall, similar in appearance to Curtain Falls), and right at the top of the Fifth Fall. All seven falls are 40 ft. or higher spectacular freefalls, and we would give each of them individually a very high ranking. Collectively, Seven Falls is easily a "10".
Getting around to see each of the other waterfalls is not easy, however. We spent 4 hours scrambling through the forest, up and down along treacherous granite cliff sides, and through the abundant poison oak. It is strenuous scrambling, not hiking. And we recommend wearing long pants. Fortunately, I seem to be immune to poison oak, but my brother-in-law, his fiance, and my wife all got it.
From the Fourth Fall, it is not "too" much work to get up to the base of the Third Fall (above the curtain waterfall). This one only looks like a small 30 or 40 ft. drop from the base, but once you work your way up to the top, you can easily see it is actually at least 70 ft. high. The Second Fall is immediately above the Third Fall, but is difficult to get a good view from the base. Be careful that you do not slip and fall into the river on the slick rocks here. The Second Fall is a beautiful triple falls, the middle tier is about 70 ft. high, which again, is difficult to determine until you climb up past it. Above this, you will shortly come to the First Fall, which is a pretty double fall (about 40 ft. total in height). Above the First Fall, we noticed another small waterfall in the distance. There could easily be more falls above this one, if you have the time and energy to explore further up the canyon.
Getting to the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Falls requires more difficult scrambling below the Fourth curtain waterfall. We came to an absolutely superb viewpoint of this incredible triple waterfall: the Fifth Fall (60 ft.), Sixth Fall (70 ft.), and Seventh Fall (70 ft.). We spent quite a while sitting here on the large rock, enjoying the solitude and incredible view. The viewpoint is marked on our map (click the "maps" icon above). The second time we came here, however, we could not find the same viewpoint, but we found another one a little closer to the triple falls but at a steeper angle. Below this viewpoint there is not much more to see, but we scrambled a little longer and came to another great viewpoint, where we could see the lower five of the waterfalls (sort of).
It is a difficult trek back up to the road, especially being tired after so much scrambling. When we got back to the jeep, my brother-in-law exclaimed that there was "no cold beer in the refrigerators!" Now that would have been sweet.
There are also a couple of small waterfalls along the South Branch at Milsap Bar campground, where the South Branch dumps into the Middle Fork Feather River. It is a pretty long and slow drive from the trailhead to the campground.
Zoom out on map to see all nearby waterfalls:
Other waterfalls nearby:
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