Shoe Box Falls
There is a parking on the side of the street, both before and after crossing the north branch of the Boquet River, about 1.3 miles north of the rte. 73/9 intersection.
There are a few primitive campgrounds just upstream from the road. The one closest to the road on the south side of the river can be driven up to (although the road is very rough, SUV or truck is recommended) and one further upstream on the south side and the one on the north side can only be walked to. These are amazing camping spots as you are right by the river and will fall asleep to the sounds of the water.
The trailhead to this falls starts on the southeast side of the river, from the campsite, going upstream. There will be a trail that will cross over the stream a couple times, I was told that you can take this trail directly to Shoe Box Falls, but I ended up loosing the trail and just decided to walk up the river. (I received a message from another person saying that from the campsite just southeast of the bridge there is an easily spotted trail that leads directly there and is only a 15 minute hike, sometimes I easily get lost) I figured if I just hiked up the stream I wouldn’t accidentally miss the falls. If you do hike upstream it will be about a 30 minute hike and you’ll know you’re getting close when the river does an almost 180 degree turn to the right.
This is a really unique swimming spot. The base of the falls is a large flat rock and it looks like a huge block of stone was removed, creating the pool. It’s a little bigger than a swimming pool but deeper. It’s quite a strange site with the river being very shallow everywhere else around here and just having this large square pool in the middle of it. Feeding the pool is another unique feature, a waterfall that comes from a hole in the rock above. It’s about ten feet tall and you can crawl into the split in the rock it’s flowing from. Above the falls are some natural rock slides that we’ve heard are good to slide down in the spring, but when we were here the river wasn’t flowing strong enough. This spot is well worth the hike up the river and one of the more interesting swimming spots I’ve been to.
There are two other great swimming spots right along this river all in walking distance. About a 30 minute-ish hike downstream (shortly before you get back to the road) is Boquet River Campsite Falls and another 10-15 minute walk downstream is Boquet Falls on the other side of the road.
Location Details
- 30 min.
- +44 06.607, -73 43.129
- Moderate
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