It has been below freezing up in the mountains for a week, so I thought I'd check out Franklin Falls and try the route from Exit 52. This is about 4 miles round trip with 460 ft of loss/gain. The forecast was far sunny weather, but it was mostly cloudy this morning. I did not see any other people on this trail while I was here. I parked at the Summit West parking area (ski lifts didn't open until 4pm today) and walked the 1/4 mile to the berm closing forest road 58. I could see a nice "trail" from previous day snowshoers, but there were no fresh tracks since the last snowfall.
The mountains were playing peekaboo in the clouds this morning.
Before the road goes into a big switchback, I could see some had taken a short cut down to the lower bend in the road. I decided to stick to the road.
Another view of nearby peaks. From the bottom of the switchback, I took the short Wagon Road Trail to join the Franklin Falls Trail.
The last section of the trail down to the falls was very narrow, steep and icy. I could not place one snowshoe in front of the other, so I walked down sideways here.
View of Franklin Falls from before the avalanche debris from last winter.
The avalanche debris with a steep drop off down. Not knowing if I could get back up in the snow and ice by myself, I decided to stay up on the trail to take my photos.
zoom of Franklin Falls
another zoom
one of the icicle covered rock walls
South Fork of the Snoqualmie River downstream from the falls, not wanting to go sideways up the trail, I switched to micro spikes and found them sufficient for the hike back up to the main road.
It was still cloudy as I continued up on the closed forest road, it even snowed for a while.
I liked this tree growing on top of a boulder.
South Fork of the Snoqualmie River along the forest road
South Fork of the Snoqualmie River near the end of the forest road heading back to the main road.
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