The Washington State Hiking Podcast

Best Waterfall hikes on the Olympic Peninsula

• Episode 9

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Jennie Flaming:

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. Well, hey, Craig, we are here today to talk about waterfalls on the Olympic Peninsula.

Craig Romano:

And I mean, it's always waterfall season, right? On the Olympic peninsula. But you know, during the summertime, it does get dry over there. And just like most of Western Washington, the best time for waterfall viewing is from November to April.

Jennie Flaming:

Yes, absolutely. So and even some of these ones that come down from snowier places can be pretty good through through May or June. And then there's ones like Marymere falls, like kind of drying up in the summer a little bit. Not completely. But

Craig Romano:

It's funny, you mentioned Marymere, because it's one of those ones that a lot of people are driving around the Olympic Peninsula, they're doing the National Park, they see the sign the falls, they they pull the minivan over to get the family out, they go up this trail, and then they get to this trickle. Yeah, I know. So we're gonna give you some much better waterfall viewing that are just equally as easy to get to it. So it's kind of like, do I daresay don't waste your time with Marymere. And we'll give you

Jennie Flaming:

Craig Romanos hot take on Marymere. I mostly agree with you. I will say that, like in the spring, it can be pretty awesome in the winter. But in the summer, it's it's there's not much water there. And

Craig Romano:

that's when most of the people are doing doing the circuit. So

Jennie Flaming:

yes, so let's talk about a round. So some of the places we're talking about today are in Olympic National Park. Some of them are not right. Um, but we're going to talk about some really awesome hikes you can do to waterfalls, on the Olympic Peninsula. So, um, anything else you want to say about Marymere?

Craig Romano:

Give it give it a shot. And maybe we should put a poll up on the website on Marymere yay or nay? Yes. Yes, yes. Because there's several of these that I think they become just popular because there's a big sign on a busy road and people are just not aware because your shameless plug you're not reading my guidebook. They'll tell you, you know, it's it's only a two star don't go but we're gonna give a much better place to go and some of these falls. They might not be the star attraction, the trail. They're kind of secondary, so they're not getting a lot of play. But once you hit the trail realize, whoa, that is that that is a star to star attraction. So yeah, absolutely.

Jennie Flaming:

One One thing I will say about Marymere falls, if you are going there is that there is some awesome old growth forest on the trail. Getting over there and the trail is fairly flat, at least to the bottom of the falls. So if you don't want to go as far from like Central Puget Sound as the HoH rain forest, that's another place you can see really big trees along the way, which is not what this episode is about. But we do need to do one about really big trees. Okay, so, um, so Craig, let's talk about some others. All right, let's first let's

Craig Romano:

You know, first of all, the closest part of the Olympic National Park to the Puget Sound area is the staircase Rapids area. Not too far from Shelton. You know, it's a great hike, especially this time of year, though. It's not waterfall in the sense you're gonna see these tomorrow, but the Cascades are amazing there. You're gonna see some some, some serious water some serious roar, you'll hear some serious roar. Really nice two mile loop you can do there. It's historic area. I would definitely if you haven't been to a staircase, rapids, that that is worth going to this time of year. One of the easier waterfalls on when we think of the Olympics. On the east side is the dry side. So you're not thinking as much rain there. But Moorhead Falls is one of the better falls on this is not too far from Quilcene. And what's interesting, it's in the Olympic National Forest. It was not discovered, shall we say until fairly recently from a logging crew. So a lot of people weren't even aware of it because it's tucked in this ravine. It's very it was an easy to find, but the trail is less than two miles round trip. It's a great one to go this time of year. And if you wait a little bit longer into May you've got rhododendrons in that area. And that should be another we should talk about all the great Rhododendron hikes Yeah. So that's a good one to do as well. And then I'm right outside the Elwha when you go, you know the road is washed out you have to park and where the parking area is, is Madison creek falls. And that's a nice one. It's ADA it's wheelchair accessible. It same thing that one might not be too stunning by the end of summer. But right now it's actually it's pretty decent. Yeah, it

Jennie Flaming:

is a beautiful waterfall in the spring. So that

Craig Romano:

one I've just given you three good waterfalls that are much better than Marymere. But if you're gonna go Madison is

Jennie Flaming:

when I used to take people to on my tour that people always really, really loved it. There's a wonderful picnic area. Yes.

Craig Romano:

And theoretically, that's still the dry area of the Olympics to so getting that. So if we go over into the wet area, we really think about rain on a longer trip. One of the nicest play and it's not in the name is in the Quinault rainforest. So when you go over Quinault, which is the National Forests, which means you can bring your dog on these hikes, there's a whole series of trails there. And there's a couple of Cascade falls really nice the bridge goes over it. These falls are incredible. And you're getting the Cobra force is amazing in here too. So there's several falls in this region and you can hike you know, a couple of miles or up to 10 miles, great area for waterfalls. And then on the coast you're not thinking about the coast itself, beach hikes, but on third beach, you get your hike down one I think it's like 1.7 miles or something to the beach, and then walk along the beach to the south. As far as you can go before you hemmed in, and you've got a waterfall just crashing right into the ocean at Strawberry Bay. That's that's one of the near falls and if you do some of the more rugged overnight going along the Olympic Coast you're gonna find a lot of these smaller falls coming down crashing right into coves. So, so a lot of them there. They're not the big famous ones. Probably the most famous waterfall in the Olympics. You know I would say soul duck and you know it soul duck definitely deserves a type it is beautiful. It's a beautiful fire. And even in the summertime it's still flowing really well but boy this is the time of year. You've got the maidenhair furs. A ferns growing along it the bridge that goes above it. You've got a CCC picnic shelter that's been restored and amazing old growth forest towering trees easy easy hike to get in there it's a little over a

Jennie Flaming:

mile Wait a minute Craig remember we don't say easy it's hard we have to catch ourselves to I would say it's not steep

Craig Romano:

it's always tough tough for me because I can't consider anything that's less than 20 miles and

Jennie Flaming:

you do much much harder not the only reason but one reason is you can do much harder this

Craig Romano:

is a waterfall that most people like most people can do yeah it is not a not a difficult hike yes and if you want to extend it because it is it is fairly short you can do this wonderful loop through the Lovers Lane trail that goes along along the creek there and into the campground so if you're camping there or heading out to the to the hot springs which is a develop hotspot it's not a back country but it's really nice to pull it as everything's connected so you can make this into a much larger you know into a day trip you know waterfall camp hotsprings the whole the whole yeah oh growth

Jennie Flaming:

and if you do that hike on Lovers Lane from from the campground thereby sold at hotsprings like that is still not a steep hike it's that's something like seven miles apart right? Um but it's it doesn't have a lot of elevation gain. So it's still something that most people who are up for walking the distance can do and

Craig Romano:

I'm consulting my guide right now to give you the actual stats on that Thank

Jennie Flaming:

you Craig

Craig Romano:

soul duck falls loop it's five and a half miles Oh, okay. Okay shorter than I thought and the elevation gain is 400 feet Yeah. And I did give that a difficulty of a one which is I use that for bit verboten word easy

Jennie Flaming:

good because one is a number that says it's less difficult yeah other yes so

Craig Romano:

I rate which one to fire yeah yeah the train just a few rocky spots but it's fairly level all ages and abilities can can do this. And surprisingly to the Lovers Lane trail soul duck is popular you'll get a lot but the Lovers Lane is not most people who are just intent on seeing the falls, you know, for their Instagram shot or whatever. They're just going to do the out and back to the falls Yes. And

Jennie Flaming:

that is I believe less than two miles Yeah,

Craig Romano:

just round two miles. Yeah.

Jennie Flaming:

So you can choose your own adventure there a little bit as far as how far you feel like okay,

Craig Romano:

now if you want because soul duck is definitely a popular place you If you're looking for the trail less traveled the waterfall as viewed truly always looking

Jennie Flaming:

for that off the

Craig Romano:

beaten path.

Jennie Flaming:

Another reason why we're doing this together,

Craig Romano:

I'm going to send you south to the south flank of the Olympics. We're very, very few people, except for, you know, the great harbor, the Grays Harbor people out there, like, Oh, please don't reveal our spots. But I'll tell you steal it. I tell you, I talk about these I write about it. And I just did a talk in Port Angeles last week, and it's amazing. I asked the audience there. How many of you have made the trip south? It's funny calling trips out, it's like think you're going to LA or Alabama or something south to them as Grays Harbor?

Jennie Flaming:

Yes,

Craig Romano:

they don't go. I mean, you know, that's what's crazy is that, you know, this this vision, or that's too far, or there's, there's just not much there. That's not true. So there's some really neat falls that why Nucci Lake and, and what's interesting, you know, years ago, I mean, it's still it's a haul to get there. But the road is paved. Now to get to get to the lake where years ago is a long dirt road. Yeah, so and there's some really nice campgrounds at the lake too. So if you're going in here, you can spend the weekend in there. If you do the loop around the lake, which is a decent all day hiking, it's 12 to 16 miles, but you can go by maidenhair for maidenhair. Fern falls made her fall falls, which is spectacular. And there is a short way to get in there you can you can continue up the dirt road and go up there. That's spectacular. And another hidden waterfall, that you're probably the only ones there is the spoon creek falls. And that one, you you go towards the SATs of lakes, which is another nice off the beaten track place to hike. And you hiked down into the Scorch to the falls. It's a very, very short hike. It's less than I think it's a quarter of a mile to get into it. And you and when not this time of year, but later in the fall, you can actually put some put some boots on and do some exploring down into into that into that ravine, what's neat about the South the rivers and the creeks on the south flank of the Olympics, a lot of them disappear. And these gorgeous, it's just an entirely different landscape. And with that said, over the High Bridge, which crosses it's an old logging, old logging road that goes over to on the highest like it's named, and it's one of the highest bridges in the state. It's insane. You can walk across this thing and pure down hundreds of feet down below and there's a waterfall tumbling the Vinson creek falls, which is also spectacular. So you're going up the South Fork of the Skokomish area. That's one do the side trip to check out those waterfalls. Yeah, so there's some cool falls on the south flank. You

Jennie Flaming:

know, it's funny that you talked about maiden hair Fern falls

Craig Romano:

your falls? Yeah, no fur just made her fall? I know. I kept saying no, because because of the fern. Yeah, yeah,

Jennie Flaming:

I think it's funny. That's a little bit of a twist on the Bridal Veil Falls, which of course we have in Washington

Craig Romano:

has several of them every state has one.

Jennie Flaming:

Like every state has at least Alaska has two or three Bridal Veil Falls that I know about. We have at least one in Washington. I don't know. I think that's just funny. It's like Bridal Veil Falls and horsetail falls. Yeah, we kind of get a little more creative in the naming of the water. And

Craig Romano:

what's interesting and horsetail because waterfall aficionados, when they describe a waterfall, they describe it as two. Tier three, they'll describe a waterfall as horsetail as so it's used as

Jennie Flaming:

a classification. Right, like a description. Exactly. Exactly.

Craig Romano:

So yeah, it would be Yeah, it would be nicer to come up with a different name for it. But you know, a lot of people like

Jennie Flaming:

maidenhair it's basically the same ideas bridal veil, but like something different.

Craig Romano:

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Because some of these falls, most of them are named after you know, the first person that recorded seeing them and things like that. Or the first non native person that recorded seeing them some of them are descriptive like staircase rapid so you give you and then you know some of them do have the native names like Soul duck, and then you know, others are just battle exactly like horse tail.

Jennie Flaming:

Like someone was just out of,

Craig Romano:

you know, Swift River, things like that cold river, you know, but um, yeah, so don't let that fool you into thinking whether the waterfall is worth seeing. It does doesn't have to have but it is nicer when it carries you know, a name that kind of piques your interest. So totally, completely

Jennie Flaming:

agree. Okay, any other favorites on the Olympic Peninsula?

Craig Romano:

So I'm trying to so one of their if you're interested that could be it's kind of fascinating. So the dosi Wallops road is washed out and we can talk about talk about, about that in itself what that means, but you can walk up or mountain bike up the road right now and several miles up it it's a good haul to get up. There is an amazing waterfall on the dosi Wallops river just going you're gonna you're gonna hike right aside, it's crashing. And matter of fact, we were Jenny and I were talking earlier about Yosemite and, and it does remind me that the waterfall the way the roads position the rocket, it does remind me something you'd see in the assembly Valley. And so this time of year, that's an incredible waterfall to see. So it's probably one of the more impressive ones to say.

Jennie Flaming:

And so the issue with that one is because the road is closed, it's longer but not particularly steep. like it'd be right road,

Craig Romano:

it's a long slog on a road. But you know, it's, there's some good forest in there to confuse the river again, it's easy. I'm sorry.

Jennie Flaming:

I can tell that there's gonna be a running thing forever. And

Craig Romano:

I always warn people my definite, but though, in my books, I do not base it on what I think I do and the general population.

Jennie Flaming:

And you also base your difficulty ratings in your book based on data, right? It's not like based on like, oh, Craig Romano felt like it was easy or hard. It's more like, if it's a one, then it's going to be shorter and not as steep. If it's a five it's going to be long and steep. I mean, or anything in between. So

Craig Romano:

I should tell you my 85 year old grandmother can do my grandmother 85 year old mother can do this hike, but I should warn you that you know the genetics your mouth. Yeah, she's she's been hiking for quite a long time and she's capable of doing these types like but no, it's generally all ages and abilities. And again, you can push a mountain bike up there if you want to do that too on the road.

Jennie Flaming:

So yeah, yeah. Sweet. Okay, so does that bring us to the end of our top pick waterfalls for the Olympics?

Craig Romano:

Oh, let me give you all this you know, there's a lot of them that are just off the road so we don't have to talk about those and not really hike but one of the neater it's not a spectacular fall in beauty but but the its location is spectacular. So I was just last week, I was just up at stripe peak, checking out the new new loop up there, which is out of this world to great if you haven't been up there. Same thing. This was a hike years

Jennie Flaming:

ago just mentioned where that is correct. Yeah, it's there. It is new people. It doesn't new yet, right. It's

Craig Romano:

been around for 1000s of years. But um, millions of years, I should say. But um, it's just east of, I'm sorry, just west of Port Angeles near joy. So very, very close to Port Angeles. And it's DNR, you access it through a county parks through salt Creek, and it's on DNR property. And years ago The hike was just so so it wasn't anything exciting. You you you hike through beautiful growth that was nice. And you ended up on our old grown and growing over road and it's like, you know, but now the new loop. It's six and a half miles the views are amazing and to Vancouver Island down the Strait of Juan de Fuca into the it's incredible. It's when you know when I redo my book, it's gone from a two star to a four star. Okay, just let you know. So part of that trip when you go you started going through Olga forest, there's a side side trail that goes to this cove, which is just called ready for this the cove Okay.

Jennie Flaming:

Coming up with extremely creative names,

Craig Romano:

you do a contest, it'd be a great way to raise money for for our parks like you know, you pay to name it something right. But anyways, you dropped down a couple 100 feet, but it's it's steep, but it's incredible. The stonework that was done near it's all stone steps. And there's this little waterfall that just comes down is tiny ravine right into there, and you walk to the base. And again, the fall itself isn't you know, isn't spectacular, but the setting is spectacular. Yep. So check it out.

Jennie Flaming:

Awesome. Fantastic. Okay, before we wrap up this episode around waterfall hikes around the Olympic Peninsula. I just wanted to also mention, if you haven't been to the Olympic Peninsula before, it can be quite a long way between places you can get food, right? There's not like fast food every few miles or any food every few miles. So I mean, there are some great places to stop for food like Port Angeles is a is a probably the best food stop on the limit and swim to swim is really good. But in general, and there are some awesome little roadside places and that kind of thing, but it is a good place to bring some food with you in my opinion, so that you're not like wanting to jump out of the car and do a hike but you're like a two hour drive from any kind of food and you know you're bringing some stuff with you on the Olympic Peninsula is is a really good practice.

Craig Romano:

And the other thing I should warn to you Olympic National Park it's one of our most popular national parks. What's amazing though, does not have a lot of the good Lord. Even Port Angeles which is the largest community surrounding is not what we think of as a gateway community if you've been to you know, Tucson and Grand Canyon in some of these you know where there's lots of lodging and food but it's so you lower your expectations for for lodging and food and everything yeah though there are some good but um, but yeah, once you leave Port Angeles and you get you know, forks, you know, you get a little bit but you're you're getting into areas and even between Shelton and and swim, you know, they're just Quilcene is covered but you're you're you don't have a lot of choices of play and likewise for logic, you know, as campgrounds you can do, you know, but if you're looking at, you know, you want a place to stay in a hotel or Airbnb or something like that, then then swim in Port Angeles is going to be your best bet. Yeah, as you get out the coast you got you have forks and then farther south, you know, Aberdeen a little bit you're probably going to be better off looking at Ocean shores to stay there to hit Quilcene there's also this historic lodges you can stay at the Quilcene lodge at Lake clay lock Lodge. Yeah, they're they're always worried if you've never done them, you know, maybe they sometimes they run specials on the offseason, but they're, they're cool to stay at if you've never done just for the whole experience. You know, quinoa is where FDR had been out there, you know, when they're way back in the 30s. So so there's some neat history there too. Yep. But but definitely be prepared don't come I'm going to do the whole peninsula in a weekend type of thing drive around a lot of particular people were out of the area who fly you know, think they're gonna do the whole national pick an area and just do it your your Are you going to be spending a lot of time driving and one on one is not a freeway, you're going to be you know, behind RVs. And just putting along logging

Jennie Flaming:

trucks, logging trucks, when I did tours over there, that really helped me in getting new appreciation for the logging trucks are now. Just nuts, they're drying

Craig Romano:

up time is time is money. Gotta get that load delivered. Yeah.

Jennie Flaming:

I will also just mentioned since you brought up the Lake Quinault Lodge, the restaurant there is actually pretty awesome. Um, and in the summer, I have had lunch there. Like they have like a little patio space kind of in front of the lodge that has a really nice view of the lake. And that can be a really nice road trip stop. Even if you're not staying there. You know, that as well

Craig Romano:

for plugging restaurants. So the place Yeah. So the place that I discovered the two weeks last week, I was just over Port Angeles. Huge. Lots of times. I'm really busy. I'm on a trail late. I tend to I want something fast, but not necessarily fast food because I tend to want something with substance and maybe somewhat healthier. Yeah. And there's a little place and pourrions called fast burritos. Ooh, that sounds good. And let me tell you that not only it lived up to his name, it was it was we were happy though. I couldn't believe it. And not Taco Bell. And it was it was good. It was really good. And the pricing was right, you know, to local own business, too. You know, it's not a friend, you know, a large franchise area. Yeah, I will definitely hit them again. When I'm over there. Yeah, my next trip, so I don't know how long they've been around. I think they've been around for a little while. That was my latest food discovery.

Jennie Flaming:

I also there's at least one really good Thai restaurant in Port Angeles. The one that I've been to, I can't recall the name of it, but it's kind of close to the port. I'm really good. Like most Thai food in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah,

Craig Romano:

I'm sure there are some bad Thai restaurants out there, but I haven't found them yet.

Jennie Flaming:

I haven't either. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, that brings us to the end of our Olympic Peninsula waterfall episode. Our next episode next week will be about other waterfalls in Washington because we started with this waterfall episode idea and then we're quickly realized that we should split it up into a couple of parts. So stay tuned for part two.

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

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Craig Romano

Co-host