Hedge Creek Falls, Waterfall in Dunsmuir, California, US

Hedge Creek Falls is a waterfall near Dunsmuir that cascades down over dark basalt columns, forming a natural curtain of water. The flow drops into a shallow pool situated right next to the Sacramento River.

When Interstate 5 was planned, the original route would have buried Hedge Creek Falls. Local residents objected, and the highway was shifted into the hillside at a cost of about one million dollars, earning the waterfall the nickname "Million Dollar Waterfall."

On October 25, 1879, Charles E. Bolton, known as Black Bart, robbed the Roseburg, Oregon to Redding, California stage near Dunsmuir. Evidence found at the time indicated he hid in the shallow cave behind the falls before the holdup, one of three he committed in this area.

Access is from a parking lot near Interstate 5, where a short hiking path leads to the waterfall. Most visitors need less than half an hour to walk there and back.

The cave behind the falls is a natural feature of thick lava flows, not a hollow carved by splashing water. The falls sit on the southernmost tip of a pre-Pleistocene lava flow from Mount Shasta, and freeze-thaw erosion in the basalt cracks has sheared the rock face.