Franklin Falls

Drove up to the Asahel Curtis Sno-Park off of I-90 to hike up to Franklin Falls. From the Son-Park it is7 miles round trip with 800 ft of overall gain. I had the trail to the falls to myself and saw 2 people at the falls when I arrived. Later I saw 20 -30 people heading up to the falls. South Fork Snoqualmie River from the closed forest road. The route is 2.5 miles up the closed forest road to the start of the "trail", then another 1 mile to Franklin Falls.

The little red cabin and a small snowman a short distance up along the forest trail.

View looking up the South Fork Snoqualmie River across from the little red cabin.

Further up the trail, in the distance is Denny Camp Falls.

View of Franklin Falls and lots of icicles near the end of the trail.

Closer view of Franklin Falls 

I enjoyed all the icicles near the falls.

South Fork of the Snoqualmie River just below the falls.

The river a little further downstream with the trail to the left

Another view of the river before heading up the trail.

Back at the start of the forest trail and before hiking back down the closed forest road, I walked a very short distance to the road bridge over the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River to take some photos, looking upstream,

and looking downstream from the bridge.

 

Mt Washington

 Headed up near North Bend to hike up to Mt Washington an 8.5 mile round trip with 3,250 ft of elevation gain. The trailhead is at Ollalie State Park. There was lots of water in creeks and running over the trail today.
This trail is a fairly steady uphill hike.

 Water running over rock walls.

 There wasn't a cairn marking the trail off of the John Wayne Pioneer Trail/Iron Horse Trail, but someone has carved Mt WA on a tree marking this trail.

 Part way up the trail we ran into fresh snow and a peak of Mt Washington through the trees.

 Part of the trail has running water down it.

 In a few places the trail levels out.

 Wide angle view of Change Peak

 Lots of water running down the trail after the second creek crossing.

 Pond

 The trail temporarily leads away from Mt Washington

 The horse gate is covered under snow.

There is a nice view area overlooking North Bend on the way up.

From the overlook, heading back up toward Mt Washington.

In some areas, the trail is very narrow going through the trees.

 Early, there was a large cornice overhanging the trail just before the trail turns up towards the summit, but it is mostly melted out now.

 Final approach up to Mt Washington.

 View looking down at North Bend from the summit of Mt Washington.

 While we were at the top, there were lots of clouds obstructing the view, and we had to be carefully of the aggressive camp robbers.

 The clouds lifted for a bit and we could see down to Chester Morse Lake and Masonry Pool to the south.

 Over to the west is Rattlesnake Mountain and Rattlesnake Lake.

 View to the east

Mount Washington

 Had a nice conditioning hike up Mount Washington. This hike is 8.5 miles rt with 3,250 ft of elevation gain. This trail is in Olallie State Park, east of North Bend along I-90. The trail begins along the Twin Falls trail.

 About 0.3 of a mile from the trailhead, there is a spur trail to Mount Washington marked by a cairn and an orange ribbon.

 This is a forested hike, with some nice rocky cliffs along the way.

 In the last mile or so, the trail opens up for a bit,

 not much of a view today.  There was a minimal amount of snow on the trail. We did not need to use micro spikes.













Up on the summit, on a clear day, I hear there are great views. We had snow and increasing clouds. Great workout!

Some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail: