Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with my part time co host guidebook, author Craig Romano. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels. That is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. We would love to hear from you, our listeners, the second link in the show notes right below the tip jar. Hint Hint, is our voice
memo link. Please leave us a voice memo with your question, and we will answer it in a future episode. All right, everybody. We're back for part two of waterfall hikes in Washington. So Craig, last time, we talked about a Olympic Peninsula waterfalls, because we were like, oh, let's do waterfalls, because it's spring and waterfalls are awesome. And then we're like, Whoa, this is a lot. So we split it up. So
welcome to part two. Um, before we dive in here, I want to just mention that at the beginning of April, we had an episode specifically about the Columbia River Gorge. And in that one, we talked about several amazing waterfall hikes that are like ideal for spring. So go back and listen to that one. And then last week, we talked about the Olympic Peninsula. Okay, so the rest of Washington. Let's start on the west side. So lay on me some of your favorite waterfall in western Washington. And
you know, I mean, you think about it the amount of rain we get here in the Pacific Northwest, particularly the west side. I don't have the data here but Washington Scott a rank among the highest per capita in waterfalls, I would think thanks. Yeah, I know that we can definitely rule out places like Florida
it's a bit short on water.
But um, so there's a lot to talk about here. And of course, there's a lot of the more popular ones. So hopefully we'll try to tell you about some places maybe you haven't heard of. And you know, I talked about the gourd we talked about the gorge earlier. There's a lot of great falls in Washington South cascades, so just north of gore and one of the really cool ones again and again the name you know, hidden falls, you know, because it was hidden for so this is in the alcohol, burn
State Forest. So outside of Vancouver and Clark County. This is a neat a really neat waterfall and same thing you want to do it. The first time I hiked in there, it was late in the season. I wasn't that wowed by it. But then the next time I went in there, it was in the spring and this thing was flowing. It's a it's a got a good drop. Wonderful trails on the Tarbell trail you get there and I think the shortest several ways. Maybe the shortest way to get there is about a seven or
eight mile round trip. There's there's also there's there's several ways you can get in there. Doesn't get crowded. It's it's also on a trail that you can use. It's a good running trail. It's a great family hiking trail, or you can you can mountain bike this one too. So check that one out that that is a neat one. Another one in the South. This is actually south of Mount Rainier. It's over in the American River area. It's a little harder to get to but I love the name of this one to
Maasai falls. Yeah, and massage is a great name. You know, it's from the Chinook jargon. And if you don't know, Chinook was it's not a native language. It was a trade language that that that was used throughout most of the of the northwest into the Western States through the early 1800s for communicating and incorporates Coast Salish languages, French and English. It's like a lot like Swahili. So Musashi means evil or wicked.
And so I just love that so any any right I'm from New England like in Massachusetts like wicked everything's like those are some wicked waterfalls. But but even using the evil sense, massage he just I love the name. It's just enough to scare if you're bringing kids in there you can make up some stories. There might be some some good lord Saatchi falls check those out there. They actually are pretty impressive and it definitely wins one of my award for the best name for waterforce
For sure. So Jay, what do you have some we can come back with some other falls popular and more obscure. What do you what do you think on the more obscure side yeah,
on I'm sticking with the West west side of Washington. I I really love little Mashel falls in Eatonville. And it does sometimes get really busy in the summer because it's a popular swimming hole. But I've been there quite a bit in the late winter and spring. And my awesome cousin lives about five minutes from there. And it is I have not encountered a lot of people there.
So if you're unfamiliar with that area, it's in the pack. forest, which is the University of Washington's School of Forestry. And there's lots of trails and forest roads, there's old growth that's that's in there. It's it's a neat area to explore
it is. And there's the other thing that I really like about that trail is that there are several waterfalls. So you can kind of make it as long, you know, you can do like a seven mile hike there or like a two mile hike. So that's kind of nice. It is super, super muddy. So and there are some slippery rocks and stuff. So even though it's not super steep and doesn't have to be super long, you do have to be a little careful about your footwear, because you really can be sliding around quite a bit.
And then you can also go to them, The Cider House and Eatonville that has like a big outdoor space. That's kind of cool. Um, yeah, so I think that's one of my, of course, you know, on this podcast, we're like, you don't really need Craig and I to tell you about places like Wallace Falls State Park and Franklin falls and Twin Falls. I mean, those are all beautiful waterfalls in spring, but they're busy.
So let me tell you about a situation we were talking earlier about names that are used all the time, like horsetail falls or bridal veil, like I think every state that has a waterfall. So in North Florida has some elevation so they may have a Bridal Veil Falls, I'll have to look into it. But
there are you walking back here a statement about Florida.
Only in the extreme northern part of the panhandle, there's a little bit of elevation. So I'm going to say there's probably at least 35 or 40 states with a Bridal Veil Falls and out of those states, probably there's probably several right a little falls. Yes. So the other one too quickly comes to mind that that's a Twin Falls, there's probably more Twin Falls than we
can imagine. And right here in St. Louis in Washington, I know of several Twin Falls, but one of the Twin Falls that is truly off the radar that is truly spectacular. And not that far from from Seattle and in the north sound but difficult to get to are the Twin Falls in twin DNR property and into the Ashland lakes off the Mountain Highway. Okay, so if you hike there to the actual lakes, and that's, that's not a difficult trail at all, it's really it's actually it's a good one to go
early in the season. It melts out early, a couple it's some old growth forest, there's actually backcountry campsites there. But the trail from the from the the lower Ashlynn Lake, you'll see the sign the trail has been officially abandoned, and which is a shame. And I'd like to see it reopened. And I followed it a few years ago. Back in there, there's there's there's some big blow down and there's some growth on it, but
you can still follow it. And just be careful to get down here but these falls are out of this world and you can the splash pool at the base. It's incredible on this ledge and where it's set. If you're looking for if you have a sense of adventure, and you're comfortable going off, you know kind of off trail travel in essence on this, you'll get yourself a good map and explore
this. These are definitely worth checking out and you're gonna have a much different experience then those twin falls over by North Bend. Yeah. So don't rule out the Twin Falls. Okay. Cool.
Love it. Okay, so what about Central Washington? Kragh? Yes, there are some people earlier when we were not recording we were talking about like, what is central Washington and what is Eastern Washington? I mean, I would say that central Washington is kind of everything like east of the Cascade crest, but still kind of in the foothills. Not the more arid agricultural and plateau Liana true Eastern Washington. Would you agree with that?
I think the geographic center the actual geographic center of the state is somewhere outside of Wenatchee. Yeah, so give you an idea. And it's always funny because if you live in Seattle, you consider Leavenworth anything. You know, that's Eastern Washington and you tell someone in Spokane there and they're gonna crack but Spokane calls Seattle, the coast. So again, you know, Grays Harbor. So it's funny how we define it.
But yeah, we'll talk about the eastern slope of the Cascades so it's definitely more central Washington but but it's still more the western half of the state for sure. But it's on a drier side and you might think well the drier side might not be as wet the rain which is true, but those high peaks are still getting plenty of snow during the wintertime and that snow is going to melt in create some
some beautiful waterfalls. And one of the more impressive falls in really this time of year two is right outside of Winthrop. Mazuma. Is Cedar Falls. Yeah. And that one is incredible. And it's very short hike to get in there. It's less than two miles to get in there and not much of an elevation gain. This is the time of year to check those out. Those are truly impressive falls. Yeah. Yeah, Jen, you probably you want to talk about Silver Falls up there. Yeah, yeah.
So Silver Falls is unique. It's definitely one of my favorite waterfalls anywhere in Washington state it's in. It's in the Antioch Valley. So it's north of Wenatchee and south of Lake Chalayan. And you do have to drive a little bit of a distance up a Forest Service road, but at least the last time I was there, it's in pretty good. Are the roads paved?
It's paved. Yeah, it's I think it's maybe not paved quite all the way to the trail to Silver Falls. Is it? Okay? Yeah, it's paved. It's Yeah, you're good to go beyond Yeah, I went a little beyond there. So I'm like when did that pavement Yeah. And also, again, because I just my latest day hiking central cascades, which covers this whole region, the
book just came out. So I've re hiked this entire region just recently, there was some huge fires in the Antioch last couple years it did not hit my fat couldn't take them back. Silver Falls. So when I was doing my recon there, I was really worried. It's like all the fire came really close. So so you're going to be hiking up. It's a beautiful trail. It's it's beautifully constructed almost in the same vein as the CCC but
it was built in the 80s. Yeah, they use the same technique, the stone some walls defense, it's gorgeous. The trail itself is gorgeous. And the fire almost hit it. A lot of the trees that are that are shading it. It's really pretty in the fall, though it won't be flowing as much but but you know, there's there's cottonwoods and Aspen over there. The fire did not hit
that. There's a great camp's campground and National Forest campground right at the trailhead, which is a great place to base on at the fire did not hit that either. So that's good news. So we're tying that region to one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the entire state, which is not really hard to get to theoretically, as a trail, and this one involves getting on a boat for 51 miles. So if you've never been to Steven, and we were going to do a whole program
on Steve, it's amazing. Yes. So the Rainbow Falls is just out of this world. You got to end in my same book by central Cascabel. I talked about you can just wonderful three mile loop that goes on an old carriage road and you hike by an old pioneer canal through apple orchard, it is out
his world. And you want you know the bus loads come up to daytrippers to speak and they just it's just crazy because you got to go there for days you know, it's like going to Rome and spending you know, a day just visiting things that the day trippers, they do the four hours on the boat and then they get on a bus and they look at the falls for half an hour and they get back and go home time it once they leave the bus load to get out there take advantage of having those waterfalls to
yourself and you will and just they are truly spectacular. And in the light haven't been here in a while they actually construct a little bit more of a trail that kind of goes up along the falls a little higher and get you closer in the past. Wonderful and it's very, very accessible. It's wheelchair accessible if you if you're in there wonderful waterfall.
Yes. Totally agree about that one. It's so awesome.Yes, that's a whole nother topic and awesome. Okay, so how about Eastern like true Eastern
Washington. Again, you know, there's, of course we talked about this earlier Palouse falls. Yeah, again, not much of a hike but it is truly one of the most spectacular falls in the state and I did look up it is our state's
official waterfall. Okay, which I remember that in the 90s when that was declared the state I think we might have been a war between police and Snoqualmie because because they're both on that same artifact police reminds me a lot of snow call me without the lodge on top without the trees. You know, it's just a gorgeous waterfall if you've never seen it. One of the truly unique waterfalls in eastern you can't get any farther Eastern in in Washington without getting
into Idaho. You can't hike to this fall though you have to kayak to it. And that's peewee falls on the ponderay. So it's behind one of the dams and it's right up where British Columbia, Idaho, Washington, they all come together. And this waterfall just comes crashing down off of one of the highest peaks in eastern Washington. This is the Abercrombie hook nose mount which is a spectacular hike in itself. And you kayak to this waterfall.
I'm assuming you kayak to the bottom to the bottom. You don't want to go over it. You know I go off the top of this waterfall sounds really sketchy to me. Yeah, that's out of the
realm of our discussion here. I've done a little bit of whitewater in kayaks. When I was writing for paddler magazine, it's totally out of my out of my comfort zone. So I've been tossed out of a few kayaks in my time. So but we're not going to tell you this is flat water paddling to get there to enjoy this Yeah, it's mehrfach is a lot of organizations groups that do not organized tours. Check this out. This is that your Metaline Falls its way up so you can't get any
farther Eastern. In in Washington. Yeah,
that is like as northeast as You go, yeah.
So so that's a great area. Also, you know, one of the more spectacular waterfalls though. It's dammed and it's this controversy, the dam may come out. This is the Sinhala heat. They let me get this right here. Similkameen This is the Similkameen river. So this is near Soyuz, and in that area, so it's north of Tonasket.
So this is in British Columbia, this is in Washington. It's the Similkameen river starts in BC. Okay, so this is in Washington, very near the border. Yeah, it's very, very
close. And this is a rail trail that you follow the smear campaign trail, it's in my North Cascade book. It's also part of the Pacific Northwest trail incorporate, and it's about three and a half miles of rail trail of dirt rail trail to hike to this, you go to the old, it was a power an old dam, and the falls, they're incredible this time of year. Cool. And that's really pretty. And also this time of year to with some of the spring blossoms to some of that, you know, shrub steppe,
vegetation out there. It's really neat. So yeah, this is this is definitely in Washington. But you know, it's funny, you mentioned in BC and BC has got some incredible and where do you want to begin? But if you're doing if you're going up to Whistler, you know, there's the Sherman falls, which is right off the highway, you can hike along, they're incredibly, truly spectacular waterfalls. In their
sidebar, if you watch the Netflix show Virgin River, the the waterfall that Mel is always running by his chin and false. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. But if you do, there you
go. And it's funny, because I have a new book coming out next year on the Vancouver, British Columbia and I and so many of the places I talk about, I said You may recognize this from this, because I don't know if people realize that Vancouver is the number three in North America spot for for the TV and film industry. Yeah, so a lot of you know, a lot of things are filmed there and they pretend to be in the US. But you you will recognize places there. It's amazing how much shooting is
going on there. Yeah, so yeah,
cool. Okay. Anything else for Eastern Washington?
Boy have that's that's a hike. I'm trying to think because there's definitely you know, there's some rap I'm trying to think and a blew up in the there's some beautiful rapids in in the Blue Mountains in the southeastern part of the state. You know, deep gorges in there, no waterfalls are coming out. Once we sign off, things are going to come up. Maybe somebody out there knows, email us, let us know. Do you have a I
mean, this is not similar to police falls. This is not really a hike. But it is a very cool waterfall in Washington, which is Spokane Falls right in the middle of downtown Spokane. So that is slightly off waterfall hikes. But
it's an urban while you have paved trails, you can walk along, you don't go
on a very long walk in that area. It's just in an urban environment. But there are some advantages to that, like pavement and that sort of thing. So I mean, I think that's pretty cool. And if you are over there, it's totally worth it to take the gondola ride over the waterfall. Again, not hiking, but it's really
that was the site of the 1972 I believe World's Fair in that area. And also if you're going over there, too, there's the Centennial Trail. It's a paved a paved trail in Spokane and runs for I think 30 miles over there. You want to go to Riverside State Park, which is one of our largest state parks is one of our oldest. And there's a whole area of rapids in the basalt flows. That's all right within the city limits, though. I mean, you're you're you're gonna feel like you're
out farther. Very well. And maybe we should do a whole segment on urban urban hikes in the Spokane area because there's definitely there's a wonderful trail Spokane in the last what's amazing in the last 1015 years has added so many urban trails in the region it really it's pretty impressive. Their trail system. Yeah, yeah.
All right, well, we're gonna leave it there and wrap up our waterfall mini series of two episodes. Or three if you count the one in the about the gorge where we did talk about waterfalls quite a bit as well.