Shipherd Falls is a tiered waterfall on the Wind River in Skamania County, Washington, a series of ledge drops in a steep canyon about 1.1 miles from Carson. Its height has never been published, but the falls matter for fish: a fishway beside them passes hatchery spring Chinook and wild summer steelhead upriver.
The falls
The falls are classed as tiered plunges, with no measured height or drop count published. In the early 1900s the falls were sometimes called Wind River Falls.
Getting there
No public trail to the falls is documented. The canyon has no vehicle access on either side, and the maintenance trail to the fishway is badly eroded; staff reach the site over a mix of roads and trails crossing private and U.S. Forest Service land. Boaters see the falls on the Lower Wind River, a Class IV+ kayak run.
When to go
The drops are runnable by kayakers at low summer flows but not at the higher flows of winter and spring.
On site
The canyon walls are high-angle terrain, with slips or falls from height on the eroded trail risking serious injury or death. The portage around the falls is tricky and not legal on river left. A hot spring lies just below the falls on the left bank.
History and name
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service built the fishway in the 1950s and later handed it to the state. It feeds the Carson National Fish Hatchery spring Chinook program, and a trap in the fishway is used to monitor the Wind River's summer steelhead, a population the state manages as a gene bank.
Nearby
Carson Creek Falls is about 1.4 miles away, and Sweeney Falls and Crayfish Falls are each about 2.7 miles away on Souther Creek.
Distances are straight-line.