Washington’s Best Winter Waterfalls

Jennie and Craig discuss their favorite winter waterfall hikes around Washington State.

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Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:00

Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co host, Craig Romano, Craig and I are happy to have you here. 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. All right, Craig, today we're talking about winter waterfall hikes, and we've talked about waterfall hikes before, and we'll probably talk about them again, and we'll probably have a few repeats in here. But for those of you listening today, we're really focusing on hikes to waterfalls that are really particularly spectacular during the winter time. And a couple things I want to just mention before we dive into this. Number one is that around waterfalls in the winter, you have to be really careful about ice. You know, even if you don't see snow nearby, some of the places that we're gonna talk about can be really treacherous. So you definitely want some spikes for your feet. And

Craig Romano: 1:16

the thing is, I think sometimes you may not be thinking the trail might be clear. So could be an area, yes, but you have, you had a cold snap, and what happens with waterfalls, particularly in the winter time, yep, the spray, the spray zone, and that water is going to splash out and it's going to freeze on contact in these areas. So if you're trying to get the good view close that that ledge that's normally perfectly fine to get on, that could be a death trap, you know, you're going to slide right out into. So you gotta be very, very careful that

Jennie Flaming: 1:41

Craig, what kind of spikes Do you? Do you carry? Like Microsoft, yeah, routinely. And what, what? Brian, do you like yak yak tracks? Good, yeah, that's so funny. I'm very anti yak track. I'm a spike gal. Okay, not the tracks, but that's good. That's good. People ask me that all the time. So can you? Can you just before we get into this, I feel like it's worth mentioning, like the difference between those. okay, so yak traks, it's not that they're lots of people wear them, and they're great. I'll explain why they're pretty popular, yeah, yeah, in a minute. But they're, they're like chains for your feet. So they have these, well, all of the things we're gonna mention have that. So they're like something that you pull on over your regular shoes. So you're not bringing different footwear, you're just pulling them on over that. And the Yak tracks have, like, metal coils that kind of make like a hash pattern on the bottom. And I wear, I have two, you know, I lived in Alaska for a long time, so I have three pairs of spikes. Wow, I don't, I don't, I don't use all three of them here when I spend a lot of time in Alaska, as I think people know already, so I use different combos there, but here I typically wear I'm not sure how it's pronounced, but the coludas, they are, they are also a rubber thing that you pull over. But they're almost more like crampons that they have. They have teeth on the the little things so so guides in Alaska that do glacier trekking typically have that brand, and that's overkill for a lot of what happens in Washington, but like Franklin falls, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. I always bring those when I go there. But then I'll also just say that another repair that I have is, like, a much less expensive pair that is just like one Velcro strap, that they're like $20 on Amazon, so they're way cheaper. And that works for lots of things. And I also have those, and sometimes I bring those instead. So I'll put links to all of these in the show notes down there if you want to check out. And I'll let you know which ones are Craig's favorite of my favorite. So yeah, definitely check that out down there. But then the other thing, besides spikes, I wanted to just mention, is just things we've talked about with winter hiking before, like down trees and, you know, road access and some of the things we're intentionally talking about waterfalls that should be accessible in the winter. But an example of this, normally, I would talk about Wallace Falls State Park here, but it's closed right, or at least the time that we're recording this. In December. It's closed because of storm damage from the bomb cyclone. So, you know, normally, that's a great winter hike. And maybe, you know, this podcast is going to be up in late January or early February, so maybe it'll be open then. But just keep an eye out. You really need to do that extra legwork during the winter time.

Craig Romano: 5:04

Yeah, I mean, that's true for all hikes in the winter, the chances and even because the micro climates here and everything, like the bomb cyclone, didn't hit us as hard as gadget, it was other areas. So you're thinking, well, the trails are fine here, and then you get an hour so, I mean, it's amazing. Just could be one value damage. So definitely do your homework on that. And same thing, there might be, crews are gonna get right out there immediately and clear it. There might not be for a while. Yep,

Jennie Flaming: 5:30

exactly. So, yeah. So in January, when you're listening to this, maybe that will have resolved, and wells falls will be open again, but maybe not. So check on that. Okay, so Craig, do you want to start and tell us about some of your favorite winter waterfalls in Washington? Yeah,

Craig Romano: 5:45

you're mentioning Wallace falls, which is definitely one, but close to Wallace falls too, bridal veil. Yeah, is amazing early in the year. Again, it's pretty low parts so you can get up there. Yeah, it is intense. And there's another one too. That's a tough hike. You want to wear serious rain gear, or even if it's sunny, because you're gonna get, you're gonna get seriously sprayed on that thing. It's, it's incredible. That's, that's a great one to do in the winter time. Um, one of, one of the it's absolutely spectacular, beautiful. Not it's very accessible, but not the easiest to get to. If you ever been to stehen and Steven is not place you go just for the day. It's incredible in the winter time. And matter of fact, my first time I ever went to stehen was in the winter time, because you can get some great snow shooting. I've never been there in the winter. Rainbow Falls is absolutely gorgeous in the wintertime with, you know, you have all the the ice crusting on the sides and everything. You have pine forest over there. It's just gorgeous. I love that. But, you know, just more accessible. Where else? You know, the gorge. Course, so many great falls in the Gorge and I've talked about this ad nauseam about most people go to Multnomah, and a lot of these places in the summertime, when they're flowing, least the winter time, they're incredible. I mean, just, it's just how much range can be a lot less people. So on the Washington side is Hardy, and Rodney falls in Beacon Rock State Park. Those things are absolutely roaring in the winter time. They're great. There's even little falls like over in Buck Creek, in that area, in the DNR property, that normally would just be kind of just okay. Falls are really roaring this time of year. You've got over on you don't think about the San Juan Islands, and it's one of my favorite places in the winter time too, because because of the climb and everything cascade falls in Moran State Park, it's beautiful. It's surrounded by Incredibly, the biggest track of old growth forests in the San Juan Islands, too. So that's that is really neat. It's something you're not expecting to see. If you spend a lot of time in the San Juan, you're seeing more of a manicure pastoral environment, against seeing what a wilder San Juan. Yeah, you still look like and

Jennie Flaming: 7:52

there's several other like, little waterfalls, and whatever the word is for things that aren't exactly a waterfall, but are like, going anyway, there's lots of really beautiful water in there. Yeah,

Craig Romano: 8:04

it's funny. When I'm writing about it, you don't want to say the same to me as cascades, cataracts. I mean, all these little terms, you know, rivulets. Would you want to be what you want to call Exactly? So, you know, they shoot, which is the French, which just means waterfall. So that's kind of redundant when you have to shoot falls. That's right, waterfall, waterfalls, yeah. So you'll see that anywhere, um, you know, the other place too, like for local coming urban trails, we've talked about Whatcom falls, so, yeah, so great outside of Bellingham, right? Actually, it's right in Bellingham, same thing in the summertime, it's not that impressive, you know, going over the sandstone. But in the winter time. It's a whole different story. Yeah, in Larabee state park there is, there's a waterfall that only comes out in the wintertime. So if you've ever done the fragrance Lake pike and, yeah, and you walk back on the fire road, yep, there is a waterfall in the wintertime. Cool right there. It's very, very, very pretty in this in six months out of the year, it's not there. Yeah. So you have a lot of that to look for. And same thing in capital State Forest too. You've got Porter falls and mime falls, which are just not that exciting in the summertime. Yeah, in the wintertime, they're really pretty. They are so

Jennie Flaming: 9:11

and those are in capital State Forest. So, you know, low lands usually snow free, accessible in the winter,

Craig Romano: 9:19

and then another one my absolute favorite places. And I never even thought about this because I spent so much time in this area over the years, but I've always been out there in the winter time, excuse me, and that's in the Quinault rainforest. And so yeah, last year, actually went out there in September. I was doing some research, and I'm hiking. I'm telling my buddy who had never been there, oh, this is really beautiful. Like none of them, they were just trickles, because I had always seen these in February and in March. So again, a lot of people visiting the rainforest are going there in the summertime when it's not raining. Yeah, go there in the wintertime. And Quinault it's great because you can stay at the lodge right there, or even it's an hour you're only an hour away. From Aberdeen or ocean shores if you want to stay in a lodge, you know, or, you know, north so it's a great place to go in the winter time. Yeah. And wonderful trail system. The roads good to get in there. The waterfalls are amazing. There's a series of them, you can, I can. They're really, really pretty. This whole network of a dog friendly because it's in the National Forest, family friendly for us, yeah. So those are some of my favorite places for for checking out waterfalls in this time of year. Nice. What about you? Jennie, well,

Jennie Flaming: 10:28

um, there are so for sure, some of those ones that you mentioned, you know, especially Whatcom falls and Bellingham, my mouth falls kind of near Olympia, um, but I would say that my two favorites, and then I have kind of a close third, you know, for myself for winter hiking. You know, I live in Seattle. Are Franklin falls near snow. Call me pass, which is very famous. We'll talk more about that in a minute. And then, um little mayshaw falls in Eatonville. Um, pack pack forest, yep, in the pack forest. So little mayshaw Falls is actually three different waterfalls. So it's kind of cool, because you can do all of them, or you can do one of them, um, and my cousin lives in Eatonville, so that's kind of a fun winter tradition for us is to go to do that hike. Um, she does it, you know, she lives a couple blocks away, so she does it all the time. But, um, I think what I really love about those two is they're they're really special in the winter. I mean, they have lots of water in them. They're less crowded, but they're also very dynamic. And what I mean by that is, like neither of them, neither of those places, typically freeze completely, but there's almost always some amount of ice. And so I think every time I go there, it's different, and that is really cool. It's really fun for photography. It's really fun to be like, what's happening today. So yeah, a couple things to mention about Franklin falls. So if, if you listen to the um, the snowshoeing podcast that I did recently, you might already know this, but if you didn't, if you've been to Franklin falls in the past, it's different now in the winter, so the snow Park has been moved up to the summer trailhead, which is great, because that eliminates like, four miles of walking on the road. Yeah, that's where this, that's what they say. You know, we'll see where, like at, you know, mid, late January, 22 what is this? Late January? I don't know. We'll see if that's what they're actually doing, but we're recording this in December, and, you know, they they said that they were blowing it. So we'll see what happens. But that makes it shorter, easier to get to and, yeah, just a really great experience. One other thing I want to mention about Franklin falls, it is always icy. You've got to have spikes to go there. And sometimes there is snow on the hillside, the base of the falls. And if that's the case, there can be significant avalanche danger there at the base of the falls. So if there's not snow there, then you don't have to worry about that. But if there is snow there, like there often is in January, February, you got to be extra careful about again, you can still do the hike, but if you want to walk down to the waterfall, it's just that last bit that is exposed to avalanches, so you got to be careful there. And then I guess the last one I would mention for me is Twin Falls in North Bend. It's one of the most famous hikes around Seattle. It's bananas in the summer, it's bananas in the spring, it's bananas in at least through October. But man, in the middle of winter, it's much quieter, and the falls are just like all waterfalls that aren't in the high country, and super frozen. I mean, it's just spectacular during the winter. So that is definitely a go to

Craig Romano: 14:34

and it's a short hike, but you can, you can extend it to it. You can trail connects to the Palouse to cascade trail. You can go off into Mount Washington, and so you can make a big day out of it, absolutely

Jennie Flaming: 14:45

you sure can. And just to go from the trail head kind of up to where the waterfall is, that's going to be about three miles round trip and about 400 feet of elevation gain. But like you were saying, Craig, you can extend. That up for many, many, many miles if you want to have a longer outing. Also super kid friendly hike. And if you have kids, you probably know that already, but like you know it the logs, there's boulders, there's a river, there's a waterfall, it's short. There's lots of interesting things to look at. It's a good, good kid hike not too far to carry them if you have to carry them back. I'm not even a parent, and I've carried a toddler back from so anyway. Well, cool. Well, that's a great list. Happy Winter waterfalls, everybody. Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Washington State hiking podcast. Hey,

Craig Romano: 15:44

do you have questions for Jennie and I to answer in future episodes? If so, the link right below the tip jar lets you leave a voice memo for us. We'd love to hear from you.

Jennie Flaming: 15:52

And if you are enjoying this ad free podcast, please help support it by contributing to our tip jar. You don't need an account, and there's no commitment. It's the first link in the show notes. We also have links in the show notes to our work, both Craig's books, my website. If you would like to support us further

Craig Romano: 16:13

and again, thanks again for joining us, and we look forward to the next episode you