Righwash Brook Falls

The beginning of June is a glorious time in our county, but it can definitely still be a wet one. This year, we entered spring late, with our last major snowfalls still happening when other parts were entering the rainy season. It's been a wet past week, so waterfall excursions can be tricky. And yet, with a few days off before the tourist season kicks into gear, I felt like last night would be an appropriate time to visit Righwash Brook Falls. Some might say it was not, but we survived with everything intact, save for some minor bruises.

Righwash is just a small hike in terms of both distance and elevation, but it requires some careful rock maneuvering to get to the waterfalls. You can park at the lot at the Grand Falaise shortly after entering the Cape Breton Highlands National Park past Cheticamp. There's a brook running down the south side of the lot, with some steps leading down to the edge. To the left of these steps is the trail.



This is not a trail maintained by Parks Canada. When I first heard of Righwash Falls, I did wonder why there was no sanctioned trail to a waterfall that was incredibly close to an already established parking lot. Once you've gone there, however, it should be easy to determine the reasoning. After only a few feet, the trail can either go up the bank's slope, which we found impossible to climb, or dropping right back to the stream (carefully recommended). Follow the stream for a few hundred meters until you get to a small waterfall (no more than 6 feet). Then, the trail moves to the left side of the waterfall. Once above it, cross the stream and continue following the brook. The first waterfall is a drop of about 25 feet, spectacularly dropping down into rock that has surrounded the waterfall like a partial cave.



Above this is a second waterfall, but to get to it requires a climb up the steep hill on the right of this first fall, followed by a shimmy along a narrow ledge. We didn't make it that far. At this point, we both felt that the water level was too high to warrant sticking around. Everything we tried to stand on felt covered in grease, from the rocks at the bottom of the pool to those surrounding the falls. 
While developing a 'real' trail to these falls might be a future idea for Parks Canada, the current difficulty in accessing them with ease is an obvious deterrent to advertising the existence of these falls to tourists. However, it was a beautiful spot, and I'd like to revisit at a time of lower water levels.