Feather Falls is a 410-foot plunge waterfall on the Fall River in the Feather Falls Scenic Area of Plumas National Forest, Butte County, California, northeast of Oroville. After years of closure following wildfires, the trail reopened in October 2025, restoring access to what the World Waterfall Database calls perhaps the most impressive waterfall in California north of Yosemite.
The falls
The Fall River narrows into a chute, then bursts outward as it strikes a rock lip and falls about 410 feet into a branch of Bald Rock Canyon, near where the river meets the Middle Fork Feather River at the head of Lake Oroville. For decades the falls were billed as 640 feet tall, but a late-2000s survey and lidar measurements settled on 410. The granite here belongs to the same ancient body of rock as nearby Bald Rock Dome, visible from parts of the trail.
Getting there
From Oroville, take Highway 162 east for 6.7 miles, Forbestown Road for 6.3 miles and Lumpkin Road for 11.4 miles, then turn at the Feather Falls sign and drive 1.5 miles to the trailhead. Day use costs $10, and a small first-come campground sits by the trailhead.
The trail splits about half a mile in. The lower route is shorter and steeper, the upper route longer and more gradual, and most hikers make a loop: the round trip is about 8.7 miles with about 1,780 feet of gain, four to five hours. It ends at an overlook platform above the gorge, rebuilt along with the bridges and railings after the fires.
When to go
The falls run all year but are fullest from January through June, during winter rain and spring snowmelt; from July to October the flow drops sharply. Summer is hot: since the fires burned the forest, the trail has little shade and runs 10 to 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. The lower trail can flood in spring.
On site
The overlook sits high above the plunge pool. People who have left the trail near the falls have died: one man was swept over in 2012 and another fell in 2017, and two teenagers had to be rescued from about 200 feet below the overlook in 2019. Stay on the trail and behind the railings. Poison oak, ticks and black bears are common, and dogs must be leashed.
History and name
The Forest Service set aside the 15,000-acre Feather Falls Scenic Area in 1965. The 2020 North Complex Fire and the 2021 Dixie Fire destroyed the bridges and viewing platform, and more than $4 million in disaster funding went into rebuilding them, together with the Mooretown Rancheria. The nearby town of Feather Falls takes its name from the waterfall.
Nearby
Frey Creek Falls is about 1.3 miles away, Curtain Falls about 2.1 miles and Seven Falls about 4.6 miles.
Distances are straight-line.