Mt Walker and Falls View Falls Winter Hikes

 Beautiful view of the moon above the Olympic Mountains as I drove across the Hood Canal Bridge on my way to Quilcene to hike up to Mount Walker and a quick walk to view nearby Falls View Falls.

 Mt Walker is a good workout, the trail goes up 2,005 ft in 2 miles through the forest to the North Viewpoint. In the winter, there is an additional short walk to the trailhead from the closed gate right off hwy 101 south of Quilcene, and another short walk down to the South Viewpoint, makes for an overall 5.5 mile hike.

This morning, there was no snow on the trail up to the viewpoint, but there were two very icy patches just before reaching the top.

It was also icy at the North Viewpoint. to the east, views of the Olympics including Mt Constance, Warrior Peaks, Cloudy Peak, Buckhorn Mt, Iron Mt, Mt Townsend and Green Mt

To the north, overlook Quilcene Bay, are Mt Baker, Mt Shuksan and the peaks of the Cascade Mtns extending into Canada.

There was a small amount of snow and ice on the road walk down to the south viewpoint.

This is a wooded walk, but to the east, I could see some more views of the Olympic Mountains through the tree branches.

View from the South Viewpoint

Bright morning sun, but I could make out the outlines of Downtown Seattle, Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens looking across Quilcene Bay, Hood Canal and Puget Sound.

 I hiked back down to my car on the trail, and drove about 3 miles north on why 101 to the Falls View Falls Campground. The campground is currently closed, so I parked in front of the closed gate and walked about 1/4 mile south through the campground to the 0.1 mile loop trail to view Falls View Falls.


Going clockwise along the loop, the first view is of the top of the fall.

Soon there is an over look of the main part of Falls View Falls.
200 ft drop.