Managed to check out yet another waterfall during our latest trip, and while Burney Falls wasn't my absolute favorite, it was extremely impressive up close, and has a fun little hiking loop to take if you wanted to.
Got there around 8:15AM, and I HIGHLY recommend getting there as early as possible! We found a parking spot up close to the Falls, but by the time we left (around 9:45AM), there was a line of cars waiting to get in that stretched BOTH directions on the main road in. I'm assuming youre wait would probably be around a half hour at minimum, if there was even space to park to begin with (no idea if they cap the amount of people coming in, so they may well have been holding people until others left).
We had our dogs with us, which unfortunately, are unable to go down to the Falls. You are allowed to have them on the paved lookout platform at the top, but we were told the only other spot dogs were allowed at was a mile-ish long trail down closer to the lake by some campgrounds. We didn't end up doing that trail, and one of our group was fine staying with the dogs while we went down to the Falls, but just know be aware.
The hike down was pretty cool, as you have a view through the trees the entire time. There are some spots with stairs, but most of it is smooth pavement. There are some fairly steep sections, and the general area was covered in mist spray from the Falls, so it was pretty slick. Definitely don't recommend walking down in flip-flops...
The views at the base were crazy! The noise and power the water has was impressive to see and hear. There were some folks taking wedding photos down at the bank of the water, which is a bit of a bummer as they were ruining one of the better angles you could take photos from.
The path away from the Falls followed the water for a bit before coming to an small little half-moon shaped bridge. There aren't steps up and down, and instead it's just a smooth wood deck, so considering how slick it was, it was a bit tricky getting across it. It also felt very rickety once you were on it, haha. From there, it starts heading up hill at a decent clip, and while there are a few spots to see the Falls from here, it's mostly covered by hillside or thick tree lines. There are a few sets of steps once you get towards the top. It then stays fairly level, the view of the source water opening up once you get past the Falls, where you see another, much sturdier bridge you have to cross. Once you cross this, it's just a couple hundred feet or so until you're back to the start viewing area.
It was a nice little scenic hike, and was mostly shaded, so definitely nice and cool. As mentioned before, there are some other areas to explore there, but we ended up just checking out the Falls loop and then leaving.