Woodland Falls and Sawblade Falls, Coquitlam: The Waterfall Hike Nobody Can Name

First, the naming problem, because it is the reason you are probably reading this.

There is no park called Woodland Falls, and no trail called the Woodland Falls Trail. The waterfall is on Prichard Creek in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, in the hills above Coquitlam, and the trail that reaches it is officially the Woodland Walk Trail. Confusing things further, most people who hike it are not going to Woodland Falls at all: they are going to Sawblade Falls, which is a few hundred metres further upstream and considerably more impressive. So the same hike gets searched three ways, and all three are the same 8 kilometres from the same gravel pull-out.

Worth clearing up what this is not. It is not in Coquitlam River Park. It is not Crystal Falls, a separate walk further east off Karley Crescent whose route has a long-running trespass problem where it crosses private land. And despite being inside Coquitlam's city limits, this is not municipal parkland or a regional park. It is a BC provincial park, which changes the rules.

The route

The trailhead is the metal gate near the top of Harper Road, just past the Port Coquitlam and District Hunting and Fishing Club. Do not walk up the gravel road through the gate. The trail you want starts immediately to the left of the gate and climbs into the forest on wooden steps and planks.

Ten minutes up, you meet a gravel forestry road. Go left, then almost straight away drop back onto a trail heading into the forest and away from the road. Another ten minutes brings you out into the open under a set of BC Hydro power lines. Go left along the gravel road beneath the lines and cross the bridge over Prichard Creek.

Shortly after the bridge, watch on your right for the markers for the Upper Loop. This is where people go wrong, because the markers are small and there are more trails here than there are signs. Enter the forest and follow the Upper Loop as it climbs very gradually through second growth. Straight on at the first junction. Left at the second, onto a short connector down to the Lower Loop. On the Lower Loop go right, pass a very large stump on your left, and continue a short way to the creek. A narrow path down toward the water brings you to Woodland Falls, tucked in a small canyon.

It is fine. It is not why you came.

For Sawblade Falls, climb back out of the canyon to the main trail and look for a path heading steeply uphill parallel to the creek. Switchbacks bring you to a rocky clearing, then back into forest to a junction with several trails leaving it. Veer left, stay close to the creek, and the trail narrows and drops you at Sawblade. This is the one worth carrying a tripod for.

To return, go back to that junction, take the trail downhill to the left of the one you came up, and ignore the flat old logging road. Follow it down to the connector, then take the Lower Loop back to the power lines, over the Prichard Creek bridge, and retrace your route to Harper Road.

What it is actually like

Pleasant, green, and loud in a way you will not expect. The Port Coquitlam and District Hunting and Fishing Club sits right at the trailhead and gunfire from the range carries a long way into the forest. It is not dangerous and not near the trail, but the first thirty minutes of what should be a quiet walk has a soundtrack. Once you are well up the creek it fades.

The forest is second growth, mossy, and better than it has any right to be for a walk this short. The falls are the destinations but the Upper Loop through the moss is where I would rather spend the time.

Three hours, 180 metres of gain, no exposure, no scrambling. This is an easy hike and calling it anything else would be inflating it. What it is not is a beginner's route, because of the navigation.

Rules, because this is a provincial park

Everything about the access here says municipal green space, and the rules are BC Parks rules.

• Dogs are welcome but must be leashed.
• Drones: BC Parks is unambiguous that operating drones without permission is illegal in BC Parks. That covers this park. Do not fly here.
• No day-use pass and no fee. Pinecone Burke has no reservation system.
• No gate hours. Unlike the Metro Vancouver regional parks nearby, nobody locks a gate behind your car at dusk. That makes this the easiest of the four in this cluster to hike late, though a waterfall canyon goes dark early and you should carry a headlamp anyway.

BC Parks says outright that much of the hiking infrastructure in Pinecone Burke is in poor condition and the signage is incomplete, and that park operations are at a minimum. Take that at face value. Bridges and boardwalks out here get fixed slowly, if at all.

Prichard Creek runs down into the Coquitlam River system, and the Kwikwetlem First Nation writes its own name as kʷikʷəƛ̓əm, which the Nation translates from hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ as "Red Fish up the River" after a run of sockeye that once came up these waters. Their territory is centred on exactly this watershed. Standing at Sawblade Falls listening to a creek that feeds that river, it is not an abstract acknowledgement.

Trail notes from the field

One email a month: what is melting out, what is snowed in, and where the light is good right now. Written after the hike, not before it.

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