Sulphide Creek is a glacial

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the Baker River in

Whatcom County Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland (the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts of British Columbia) to the north, Okanogan ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, draining a steep and narrow canyon on the southeast flank of

Mount Shuksan Mount Shuksan is a glaciated massif in the North Cascades National Park. Shuksan rises in Whatcom County, Washington immediately to the east of Mount Baker, and south of the Canada–US border. The mountain's name ''Shuksan'' is derived from th ...

, inside

North Cascades National Park North Cascades National Park is an American national park in the state of Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Par ...

. Although called a creek, it is river-like due to its high volume. The creek is fed by the "massive" Sulphide and Crystal glaciers above Sulphide Lake and it runs east collecting several small tributaries before flowing into the Baker River at elevation . There are several very tall waterfalls occurring on the creek and its tributaries, the largest of which is

Sulphide Creek Falls Sulphide Creek Falls is a tall, moderately large volume waterfall within North Cascades National Park in Washington state. The falls drop from Sulphide Lake (elevation ) on the southeast side of Mount Shuksan down a narrow flume-like canyon to ...

Name

"Sulphide" is the

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

spelling of

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

. The creek was named for minerals that occur naturally in the area. During the 1950s

molybdenite Molybdenite is a mineral of molybdenum disulfide, Mo S2. Similar in appearance and feel to graphite, molybdenite has a lubricating effect that is a consequence of its layered structure. The atomic structure consists of a sheet of molybdenum ato ...

(molybdenum disulfide) was prospected near the headwaters of the North Fork of Sulphide Creek, although the deposit was described as having "no economic value".

Course

Meltwater from the Sulphide and Crystal glaciers skips several hundred feet down a series of Shuksan greenschist cliffs into Sulphide Lake, a small and nearly inaccessible tarn at on the southeast flank of Mount Shuksan. Sulphide Creek flows out of the lake and drops down a narrow, deeply incised rock chute forming

, one of the tallest waterfalls in North America with an estimated height of . According to Canyoneering Northwest, the Sulphide Creek canyon has had "no record of descent or exploration". At the base of Sulphide Creek Falls, an unnamed tributary (which forms a high waterfall of its own) joins from the west. The creek then turns to the east and is joined from the north by another unnamed tributary whose basin forms four notable waterfalls – Seahpo Peak Falls (), Cloudcap Falls (), Jagged Ridge Falls () and Rockflow Canyon Falls ().* * * * The creek then continues generally southeast for about through thick avalanche brush and forest until it joins the Baker River, upstream of

Blum Creek Blum Creek is a small glacial tributary of the Baker River in Washington state, in the United States. It is sourced from the Hagan Glacier and another unnamed glacier on the north face of Mount Blum, and flows approximately from there to its mo ...

and the Baker Lake reservoir.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Rivers of Whatcom County, Washington North Cascades National Park

Name

Course

See also

References