McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park

The falls take their name from Samuel Burney, a pioneer settler who lived in this country in the 1850s. The McArthur family, pioneers who arrived later in the 1800s, came to treasure the falls, and in the 1920s their descendants bought the waterfall and the land around it and gave it to the state so it could never be dammed or developed. The park's full name honors both families.

The falls are often said to have been called the Eighth Wonder of the World by Theodore Roosevelt. The line is repeated on signs and in brochures, though it is hard to document firmly, so it is best treated as local tradition rather than settled fact. What is certain is that the state recognized the falls as a National Natural Landmark in 1984 as a textbook example of a spring-fed waterfall.

This is volcanic country, layered over long ago by black basalt lava flows. The basalt here is porous and cracked, so rain and snowmelt sink into it rather than running off, filling a huge underground reservoir inside the rock.

Where the ground has been cut away at the falls, that stored water finds daylight. Some of it pours over the top in the usual way, but much of it seeps and jets straight out of the cliff face along the porous layers, which is why the whole wall appears to be flowing. The falls slowly undercut the softer rock beneath a harder cap, the same process that shapes many of the West's great waterfalls, only here it plays out in slow motion in volcanic stone.

Long before it was a park, this was and remains a place of deep meaning for the Pit River people, whose homeland covers this part of northeastern California. For the Pit River Tribe, Burney Falls is a sacred site, a power place where the rushing water marks a boundary between worlds.

Visitors are asked to treat the falls with that respect in mind, staying on the trails and taking nothing. The living presence of the Pit River people in this landscape is part of what the falls mean, not a chapter that ended with the pioneers.

The basin around the falls is a cool, wet pocket in an otherwise dry volcanic plateau, so it draws life. Black swifts, a shy and uncommon bird, nest in the spray zone behind and beside the falling water, one of the few places in California you can reliably look for them.

The surrounding forest of ponderosa pine, incense cedar, and black oak shelters black-tailed deer, and the cold waters of Burney Creek and nearby Lake Britton hold trout. Ospreys and bald eagles fish the lake, and in the mossy, fern-hung world right at the base of the falls, everything stays green even when the plateau above is baked brown.

Because the falls never dry up, every season has its reward. Summer is warm, busy, and the easiest time to hike and camp. Fall brings color to the oaks and thinner crowds. Winter can bring snow to this elevation, turning the falls into a frozen-edged spectacle, though roads and trails may be icy.

Beyond the falls loop, the park stretches to Lake Britton with its swimming and boating, and the Pacific Crest Trail runs right through, so through-hikers walk past the falls on their way from Mexico to Canada. Give yourself time to do the full loop and to simply sit by the pool and watch the wall pour.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.