Located at the end of Great Central Lake in Port Alberni, is the Della Falls Trailhead. Being that this trail is only accessible by water, you will have to book a water taxi or extend your trip by canoeing. Personally in my opinion, as we had heard by a few friends the canoe isn’t worth the experience and the taxi is a better option. So we booked the Della Falls Water Taxi, which you can book online or call for your reservations. Best time of the season will be June-October as the snow is mostly gone by then.
We attempted this trail the second week of June 2021 and many said we might hit snow. We were optimistic and went for it anyways. This was my second overnight hike but the longest. Most people just do two nights, we extended it to 3 nights and 4 days to really enjoy it.
We started our Journey across Great Central and passed Dorothy Creek, which the captain was nice enough to pull up close and show us the natural water slide. It was a well kept hidden gem but with social media it has become not so secret. I knew I wanted to come back to this spot one day and we eventually did.
Trip Plan:
June 16th: 1pm Della Falls Water Taxi
45mins across to trailhead.
Hike to Drink-water Creek Camp. (45mins from base of falls.) This took us around 5 1/2 to hike to our camp. Set up camp and hang for the rest of the night.
June 17th: 10AM start hike to Love Lake, and back down to base of Della Falls.
4 hours to Love Lake. Just under 2 to base of Della. Back to camp 45 mins or less. June 18th: 11AM back to base of falls, 45 mins. Hung out for a couple hours. Head back to camp and pack up. Head down to Margaret Creek for the night and set up Camp. Under 3 hours
June 19th: Relaxed morning, Leave Margaret Creek Camp 1130-12pm and head back to Trailhead. Roughly 2 1/2 hours. Head back across Great Central from Water Taxi 130pm.
This trail is approximately 16kms to the base of Della Falls. Della falls runs from Della Lake above and flows into Drinkwater Creek. Love Lake is approx 4kms from the 15km mark of the Della Falls Trail.
The spot we chose to camp for the first two nights was in my opinion the best. You were close to water, it was a path less travelled once people passed, you likely wouldn’t see anyone after. The Margaret Creek camp was awful and the worst, because of friendly mice. We were told they have been known to chew through tents, backpacks and more. We decided to hang our hikers outside on our poles due to this. My friends also left their backpacks in the bear cache from there. Not a bad idea.
Another beautiful spot to camp, would be right near the base of the falls. If you don’t like hearing noise at night, I suggest you probably shouldn’t stay here as the roar of Della is quite loud. Although I feel our camp near the river wasn’t any quieter with Drinkwater. When we came home it was weird not to hear the sound of a rushing river.
That first day of hiking was long, we swore had a lot of laughs to push us through. I can’t believe some people have trail-runned this in a day, what a trek! The cable-car is pretty cool and a spot of interest to take a lot of photos! We met a few coming back and everyone said what beautiful weather we had coming up. We honestly couldn’t have timed that better for June. We lucked out with everyday being sunny. We met one guy at our camp who semi-joined us for two nights. The base of the falls camp was busier when we passed, I was glad we didn’t camp there for that reason.
Heading up to Love Lake, is definitely a must-see if you are doing this trail. It was a grind for sure, but the view across looking at Della Falls was worth every step. As you don’t see the entire fall when you are at the base. It is only a portion of the falls you can see.
Love Lake during this time was still frozen, I’ve heard seeing it in the middle of summer is beautiful, I can see why. We had a few tiny areas that were thawed that were milky-blue. Gorgeous anyways. Getting up here was a tad tricker and we did bring our ice cleats, no crampons needed. There was no trail to follow only trusting the footsteps of others. Which made us all a little nervous at some points. Brandon and myself really wanted to head to the base of the lake to get a better view. However, as the melt was on this was a little out of my comfort zone and expertise and overall dangerous. We headed back down and went to finally see what we had all hiked to see. Della falls.
Coming up over bridges and seeing a nice side profile up ahead. You could hear how intense these falls are. We spent quite some time both times we came here. Couldn’t bear the thought of going in, even to get my hair wet, it was just too cold. Although I did go in below where we camped and it was refreshing after a couple nights of camping in a tent.
My pack was not as heavy, as Cody was packing most of our stuff. We didn’t bring nearly enough food. Cody does not know portion control while hiking lol. Thank god it was our last day when that happened. This trip we learned to invest in a water filter, as we were just going to trust the water was safe. Luckily Kim & Brandon shared theirs. You just never know with people camping or dead animals. Better to be safe than sorry out here.
There’s thrones (outhouses) in every camp, personally there were a few times I just brought my shovel and did my thing. Make sure to do that far enough away and out of the trails if you do. There is bear caches in every camp as well. The one we had at river camp was above in the trees, and we couldn’t figure out how to put our food up there for awhile. (Rookies.)
We were pretty happy to see the Water Taxi after 3 nights. It’s always nice to come home and have a hot shower. I really bonded with Brandon and Kimmy. We hadn’t hiked much before than. It was cool to tick this off the bucket list, as it’s one of the tallest waterfalls in Canada. Although I do know a taller one named Kiwi Falls on the Island. I look forward to the next adventure. This was a great time with great people. To watch a short clip of this adventure on my YouTube click here
Comments