Twin Falls

This afternoon we hiked up to Twin Falls off of exit 34 on I-90 east of North Bend. After hiking through the snow to Franklin Falls less than 14 miles up the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, it was amazing to see this area snow free today.
This is a 2.6 mile round trip hike with about 450 ft of over all elevation gain.

 The trail follows the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River.

 About 1/3 of a mile up the trail, a short spur trail leads to this beautiful pool.

Pano of the pool and the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River flowing out of the pool.

 At 0.8 miles from the trailhead, there are a couple of benches with a view of Twin Falls in the distance.

 As you get closer to the falls there are boardwalks along the trail.

 At the trail split, we first went to the left where a bridge overlooks the middle section of the falls,

 View from the bridge looking down river, where the main, lower section of the falls drops

We then returned back to the trail section to the overlook of the main part of Twin Falls, a 135 ft drop.

As we returned down the trail, I saw another spur which led to the river's edge.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see a view of Twin Falls from here.

A short scramble along the boulders along the river took us to a fabulous view of the falls from below.  It was amazing how much of the water was flowing under a rocky ledge that we could not see from the viewpoint higher up the trail.

 Wide angle view of Twin Falls and the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River















I enjoyed our walk along the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River today.

Franklin Falls

 I love seeing Franklin Falls when there is lots of ice at the Falls. This is located off of exit 47 on I-90 east of North Bend.
In the winter when the access road is closed, it becomes an 8 mile round trip hike.

 I also like the views of the snowy South Fork of the Snoqualmie River along the way.

 There was enough fresh snow so that the trail was not icy this morning. But not enough snow of this packed trail to need snowshoes.

 View as we approached Franklin Falls. The last bit of trail is very narrow as it goes around the rocky wall. Not many people this early in the morning.

 Quite a bit of the falls has frozen.

 There is also lots of frozen icicles along the rock walls on either side of the falls.

 Franklin Falls has a drop of 135 ft, but only 70 ft of the drop is seen from below the falls.

love how parts of the falls freeze when it gets cold

 lots of water still coming over the falls to stir up the water below.

View of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River below the falls.

a friendly snowman along the trail

Palouse Falls

We drove out to Southeast Washington in the scablands area to visit Palouse Falls State Park.  The overlook of the falls is right next to the parking area. We did some hiking on the unofficial trails outside of the park for a total of about 2 miles.

In the morning the sun was not in the best position for photos, 

 so we headed out on a trail that would take us down to Palouse River upstream from the falls. I was happy to visit her in the winter when the rattlesnakes are hibernating.











The trail was a bit steep heading down towards the river.

 We saw several marmots out enjoying the sun today.













Wide angle view of the Palouse River cascading down stream towards the falls. This is called Squaw Falls or Upper Palouse Falls. It has a 20 foot drop.
There was ice along the waters edge, but fortunately, very little ice on the trail

Looking back at Upper Palouse Falls as we hiked down towards the top of Palouse Falls.

 icy rocks along the river's edge

 The trail we followed along the canyon cliffs. A marmot kept peeking out from a hole in the cliff, he was to fast for me to get a photo.

 There are some interesting rock formations (Castle Rock) above the falls. We followed the boot path to the left to reach the top of the falls.

Wide angle view looking down the canyon, the falls are behind Castle Rock.

 I was thankful we were at the falls while there were so many interesting ice formations.

 Wide angle photo from the top of the falls.

Carefully, looking down at the top of Palouse Falls.

We returned back along the way we had come. When we reached the plateau, we took the path that was closer to the edge. Wide angle view looking down at Upper Palouse Falls and the Palouse River where we had just been hiking.

There are signs warning you there is no trail straight off the cliff edge.

A series of photos of Palouse Falls as we followed this trail back to the original viewpoint near the parking area. 

To the left of this wide angle photo you can see Castle Rock which we walked behind to reach the top of the falls. The parking area is to the far right in the photo

There is a long fence as you get closer to official viewpoints

Palouse Falls is the Official Waterfall of Washington State.