Pixley Falls State Park — Attraction in Town of Boonville

A gorgeous place but BE AWARE!! we started the trail which is right now incomplete but there are signs guiding for caution and little pink/orange flags showing the way. We followed the flags and after like 20 minutes got to a place where we could turn left of proceed up. So we started up and just kept following the flags up , then slightly left in a straight line with a small slope , then we saw the sign ‘trail’ pointing up and kept following . In several places the little flags were replaced by pink ribbons tied around branches along the way. And so we went , up and up for like half an hour , and then , after a small pink ribbon, suddenly the signs/flags/ribbons stopped. From this point on we could have just gone back but I had one single reception bar on my phone and checked on Google map, we were 20 minutes away from the parking but the dot of our location was somewhere in the green part of the map where there were no trails or roads so we had some distance to reach the trail leading to the parking. It looked like the distance from our location to the trail is twice as from the trail to the parking ( which was 20 min walking) so we decided to start descending between the trees, slowly and carefully because the soil was covered with tons of dead leaves, mud and crawling creatures under them…. Needles to say that we rolled on them after slipping several times and we also reached a point where it seemed to be impossible to get further down without either sinking in the mud or braking some body part while trying to descend between dead tree trunks , small shrubs and dense branches…… most of the way there was no cellular reception so we couldn’t check if we are proceeding the right way… but, finally, after almost 2 hours of butt sliding, mud sinking , scratches and stings from the hiding creatures, we reached the trail……. There are more parts of this story that I am not putting on here (now funny but pretty scary at that time), but overall, we had a great adventure. For the summary, it seems that someone decided to have a little fun with displacing the little flags, so please people, print out a map of the area before you decide to try out all...

This state park is very easily to find my way around. There are 2 parking areas. One is at the picnic area and the other is further down into the park by the waterfall. If you want to hike to see the waterfall, please be careful. I had my 2 little dogs with me. I started down the trail by the waterfall, and decided to take the trail on the left with some trees between me and a trail next to the waterfall. I could see the waterfall between the trees. The trail started easy, then as I got to the point where I needed to turn right to hike away from the waterfall, the trail ahead was very narrow. It was made for 1 person. Not sure what happens when 2 people traveling in different directions and needed to pass each other. The trail was about 24" or less wide right along the edge of the cliff. I got nervous and worry for the safety of my dogs and me. I decided it was best not to hike the trail, and turned right to go toward the waterfall and back to my car. As I was hiking toward the waterfall, there was a small section of the trail that is very narrow and worn. Definitely need to be careful and pay attention. When I got to the waterfall, there were steps going down to the waterfall. The falls was not massive, but still pretty to see. On the right, there is a Cascade of small falls, and it's pretty, too. I climbed back up the steps and headed up this very steep trail of dirt, rocks and tree roots to get back to my car. The little loop I hiked was about 0.25 miles. I do not recommend this trail for anyone who is afraid of height or has difficulty walking and balancing because there are sections of the trail that are very narrow and along the climb. If you want to get up close to the waterfall, you will need to have no walking and/or balancing issues. Otherwise, it can be dangerous. There is another trail at the end of the parking lot that appeared to be much safer. I only took a short hike to the bridge to check it out. The bridge looked unstable since it needed repair. I didn't walk on it but it is probably pretty...

Intro: A nice little place with several trails. Plenty of little falls along many of the trails.

Entrance: Clearly marked, however, it's very out of the way and isolated. Though that makes it easy to enter and exit.

Parking: There are no clearly marked parking spots, I ended up parking far up the park away from the entrance, since I wasn't sure what was considered parking. As I left, I saw where others decided to start parking near the entrance, I guess that works.

Facilities: Unfortunately, nothing was very well maintained, there was some sitting areas and grills, and even a small covered area, but the only thing that was bright and in great condition was the trash and recycle bins. On that note, I barely saw any trash, I was happy with that.

Trails and other Features: This is where it shines, plenty of trails, mainly 3 trails. Two of the paths are easy, parallel to each other, an upper path and lower path that follows the main falls and river. Unfortunately, I visited during a very dry spell, so both the main waterfall and river was dried up. What made up for it was the many, MANY smaller falls scattered along the path, made it very worth it. Both the easy trails converge at the end, leading to a harder path. Well, because I spent all my energy climbing up and exploring the many falls, I didn't explore the harder path so I can't really compare them, lol.

Final Word: I would not come to this place for the picnic area, it's doable, but there are so many other parks that offers better picnic areas. The real reason are the trails, plenty of exploration and plenty of things to see. Definitely come here if you want to take a very long...