Mossbrae Falls

Mossbrae Falls is a 52-foot segmented horsetail waterfall in Siskiyou County, California, where springs pour from a mossy cliff straight into the Sacramento River about 2.4 miles north of Dunsmuir. There is no legal public trail to it: the only walking route follows active Union Pacific tracks, and the City of Dunsmuir is raising money for a safe trail that has not yet been built.

The falls

Water seeps from a cliff-wide series of springs and fans directly into the river, about 175 feet wide on average and up to 250 feet at most. The springs draw on aquifers in the volcanic country around Mount Shasta, so the flow is steady all year; estimates run about 20 cubic feet per second for most of the year and 10 in the drier months, with snowmelt adding volume. The World Waterfall Database gives the height as 52 feet in a single drop, from its own visit in 2009.

Getting there

Mossbrae Falls is closed to the public. The land is posted as private, and the current approach along the railroad is illegal and dangerous. That route ran about 1.2 miles along the Union Pacific right-of-way, and the city closed the illegal parking area in 2011. The city counted 18,900 visitors in 2024 anyway.

The planned legal route would extend the Hedge Creek Falls trail by 0.6 mile, to 1 mile in total, with a raised section along the Sacramento River and a pedestrian bridge across it. Union Pacific has agreed to grant the right-of-way, but the project still needs $3 million before construction can start. No opening date has been announced.

When to go

Because the falls are spring-fed, they run year-round; flow was ample during a survey in late July. Visiting will only be legal once the new trail opens.

On site

Walking the tracks is dangerous. Trains have struck hikers on the way to the falls in 2011 and 2019; in November 2011 a woman hiking the tracks with her family was hit by a freight train and hospitalized.

History and name

The name joins the moss that covers the cliff with "brae," a Scots and Irish word for a steep bank or hillside. The falls have drawn visitors since the 1800s, first by train to the Shasta Springs stop and later on foot along the tracks from Dunsmuir. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once brought former President George H. W. Bush to see them.

Nearby

Hedge Creek Falls, where the planned Mossbrae trail would begin, is about 0.3 mile away. Faery Falls is about 3.8 miles away, and Root Creek Falls about 5.5 miles.

Distances are straight-line.