January 22, 2025 • 16 mins
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Jennie and Craig discuss their favorite winter waterfall hikes around Washington State.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennie Flaming (00:00):
Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast.
I'm your host, Jennie ThwingFlaming, and I'm your co host,
Craig Romano, Craig and I arehappy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive. Allright, Craig, today we're
(00:28):
talking about winter waterfallhikes, and we've talked about
waterfall hikes before, andwe'll probably talk about them
again, and we'll probably have afew repeats in here. But for
those of you listening today,we're really focusing on hikes
to waterfalls that are reallyparticularly spectacular during
(00:52):
the winter time. And a couplethings I want to just mention
before we dive into this. Numberone is that around waterfalls in
the winter, you have to bereally careful about ice. You
know, even if you don't see snownearby, some of the places that
we're gonna talk about can bereally treacherous. So you
(01:13):
definitely want some spikes foryour feet. And
Craig Romano (01:16):
the thing is, I think sometimes you may not be
thinking the trail might beclear. So could be an area, yes,
but you have, you had a coldsnap, and what happens with
waterfalls, particularly in thewinter time, yep, the spray, the
spray zone, and that water isgoing to splash out and it's
going to freeze on contact inthese areas. So if you're trying
to get the good view close thatthat ledge that's normally
perfectly fine to get on, thatcould be a death trap, you know,
(01:38):
you're going to slide right outinto. So you gotta be very, very
careful that
Jennie Flaming (01:41):
Craig, what kind of spikes Do you? Do you carry?
Like Microsoft, yeah, routinely.
And what, what? Brian, do youlike yak yak tracks? Good, yeah,
that's so funny. I'm very antiyak track. I'm a spike gal.
Okay, not the tracks, but that'sgood. That's good. People ask me
that all the time. So can you?
(02:04):
Can you just before we get intothis, I feel like it's worth
mentioning, like the differencebetween those.
okay, so yak traks, it's notthat they're lots of people wear
them, and they're great. I'llexplain why they're pretty
popular, yeah, yeah, in aminute. But they're, they're
(02:26):
like chains for your feet. Sothey have these, well, all of
the things we're gonna mentionhave that. So they're like
something that you pull on overyour 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
(02:47):
make like a hash pattern on thebottom. And I wear, I have two,
you know, I lived in Alaska fora long time, so I have three
pairs of spikes. Wow, I don't, Idon't, I don't use all three of
them here when I spend a lot oftime in Alaska, as I think
people know already, so I usedifferent combos there, but here
(03:08):
I typically wear I'm not surehow it's pronounced, but the
coludas, they are, they are alsoa rubber thing that you pull
over. But they're almost morelike crampons that they have.
They have teeth on the thelittle things so so guides in
Alaska that do glacier trekkingtypically have that brand, and
(03:28):
that's overkill for a lot ofwhat happens in Washington, but
like Franklin falls, which we'lltalk about in a few minutes. I
always bring those when I gothere. But then I'll also just
say that another repair that Ihave is, like, a much less
expensive pair that is just likeone Velcro strap, that they're
(03:49):
like $20 on Amazon, so they'reway cheaper. And that works for
lots of things. And I also havethose, and sometimes I bring
those instead. So I'll put linksto all of these in the show
notes down there if you want tocheck out. And I'll let you know
which ones are Craig's favoriteof my favorite. So yeah,
(04:10):
definitely check that out downthere. But then the other thing,
besides spikes, I wanted to justmention, is just things we've
talked about with winter hikingbefore, like down trees and, you
know, road access and some ofthe things we're intentionally
talking about waterfalls thatshould be accessible in the
(04:31):
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'rerecording this. In December.
It's closed because of stormdamage from the bomb cyclone.
So, you know, normally, that's agreat winter hike. And maybe,
(04:51):
you know, this podcast is goingto be up in late January or
early February, so maybe it'llbe open then. But just keep an
eye out. You really need to dothat extra legwork during the
winter time.
Craig Romano (05:04):
Yeah, I mean, that's true for all hikes in the
winter, the chances and evenbecause the micro climates here
and everything, like the bombcyclone, didn't hit us as hard
as gadget, it was other areas.
So you're thinking, well, thetrails are fine here, and then
you get an hour so, I mean, it'samazing. Just could be one value
damage. So definitely do yourhomework on that. And same
thing, there might be, crews aregonna get right out there
(05:26):
immediately and clear it. Theremight not be for a while. Yep,
Jennie Flaming (05:30):
exactly. So, yeah. So in January, when you're
listening to this, maybe thatwill have resolved, and wells
falls will be open again, butmaybe not. So check on that.
Okay, so Craig, do you want tostart and tell us about some of
your favorite winter waterfallsin Washington? Yeah,
Craig Romano (05:45):
you're mentioning Wallace falls, which is
definitely one, but close toWallace falls too, bridal veil.
Yeah, is amazing early in theyear. Again, it's pretty low
parts so you can get up there.
Yeah, it is intense. And there'sanother one too. That's a tough
hike. You want to wear seriousrain 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
(06:08):
a great one to do in the wintertime. Um, one of, one of the
it's absolutely spectacular,beautiful. Not it's very
accessible, but not the easiestto get to. If you ever been to
stehen and Steven is not placeyou go just for the day. It's
incredible in the winter time.
And matter of fact, my firsttime I ever went to stehen was
in the winter time, because youcan get some great snow
(06:30):
shooting. I've never been therein the winter. Rainbow Falls is
absolutely gorgeous in thewintertime with, you know, you
have all the the ice crusting onthe sides and everything. You
have pine forest over there.
It's just gorgeous. I love that.
But, you know, just moreaccessible. Where else? You
know, the gorge. Course, so manygreat falls in the Gorge and
I've talked about this adnauseam about most people go to
(06:53):
Multnomah, and a lot of theseplaces in the summertime, when
they're flowing, least thewinter time, they're incredible.
I mean, just, it's just how muchrange can be a lot less people.
So on the Washington side isHardy, and Rodney falls in
Beacon Rock State Park. Thosethings are absolutely roaring in
the winter time. They're great.
There's even little falls likeover in Buck Creek, in that
(07:13):
area, in the DNR property, thatnormally would just be kind of
just okay. Falls are reallyroaring this time of year.
You've got over on you don'tthink about the San Juan
Islands, and it's one of myfavorite places in the winter
time too, because because of theclimb and everything cascade
falls in Moran State Park, it'sbeautiful. It's surrounded by
Incredibly, the biggest track ofold growth forests in the San
(07:36):
Juan Islands, too. So that'sthat is really neat. It's
something you're not expectingto see. If you spend a lot of
time in the San Juan, you'reseeing more of a manicure
pastoral environment, againstseeing what a wilder San Juan.
Yeah, you still look like and
Jennie Flaming (07:52):
there's several other like, little waterfalls,
and whatever the word is forthings that aren't exactly a
waterfall, but are like, goinganyway, there's lots of really
beautiful water in there. Yeah,
Craig Romano (08:04):
it's funny. When I'm writing about it, you don't
want to say the same to me ascascades, 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, whichis the French, which just means
waterfall. So that's kind ofredundant when you have to shoot
falls. That's right, waterfall,waterfalls, yeah. So you'll see
that anywhere, um, you know, theother place too, like for local
(08:26):
coming urban trails, we'vetalked about Whatcom falls, so,
yeah, so great outside ofBellingham, right? Actually,
it's right in Bellingham, samething in the summertime, it's
not that impressive, you know,going over the sandstone. But in
the winter time. It's a wholedifferent story. Yeah, in
Larabee state park there is,there's a waterfall that only
comes out in the wintertime. Soif you've ever done the
(08:47):
fragrance Lake pike and, yeah,and you walk back on the fire
road, yep, there is a waterfallin the wintertime. Cool right
there. It's very, very, verypretty in this in six months out
of the year, it's not there.
Yeah. So you have a lot of thatto look for. And same thing in
capital State Forest too. You'vegot Porter falls and mime falls,
which are just not that excitingin the summertime. Yeah, in the
(09:08):
wintertime, they're reallypretty. They are so
Jennie Flaming (09:11):
and those are in capital State Forest. So, you
know, low lands usually snowfree, accessible in the winter,
Craig Romano (09:19):
and then another one my absolute favorite places.
And I never even thought aboutthis because I spent so much
time in this area over theyears, but I've always been out
there in the winter time, excuseme, and that's in the Quinault
rainforest. And so yeah, lastyear, actually went out there in
September. I was doing someresearch, and I'm hiking. I'm
telling my buddy who had neverbeen there, oh, this is really
(09:41):
beautiful. Like none of them,they were just trickles, because
I had always seen these inFebruary and in March. So again,
a lot of people visiting therainforest are going there in
the summertime when it's notraining. Yeah, go there in the
wintertime. And Quinault it'sgreat because you can stay at
the lodge right there, or evenit's an hour you're only an hour
away. From Aberdeen or oceanshores if you want to stay in a
(10:02):
lodge, you know, or, you know,north so it's a great place to
go in the winter time. Yeah. Andwonderful trail system. The
roads good to get in there. Thewaterfalls are amazing. There's
a series of them, you can, Ican. They're really, really
pretty. This whole network of adog friendly because it's in the
National Forest, family friendlyfor us, yeah. So those are some
of my favorite places for forchecking out waterfalls in this
(10:25):
time of year. Nice. What aboutyou? 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 kindof near Olympia, um, but I would
say that my two favorites, andthen I have kind of a close
third, you know, for myself forwinter hiking. You know, I live
(10:50):
in Seattle. Are Franklin fallsnear snow. Call me pass, which
is very famous. We'll talk moreabout that in a minute. And
then, um little mayshaw falls inEatonville. Um, pack pack
forest, yep, in the pack forest.
So little mayshaw Falls isactually three different
waterfalls. So it's kind ofcool, because you can do all of
them, or you can do one of them,um, and my cousin lives in
(11:14):
Eatonville, so that's kind of afun winter tradition for us is
to go to do that hike. Um, shedoes it, you know, she lives a
couple blocks away, so she doesit all the time. But, um, I
think what I really love aboutthose two is they're they're
really special in the winter. Imean, they have lots of water in
(11:37):
them. They're less crowded, butthey're also very dynamic. And
what I mean by that is, likeneither of them, neither of
those places, typically freezecompletely, but there's almost
always some amount of ice. Andso I think every time I go
there, it's different, and thatis really cool. It's really fun
(12:02):
for photography. It's really funto be like, what's happening
today. So yeah, a couple thingsto mention about Franklin falls.
So if, if you listen to the um,the snowshoeing podcast that I
did recently, you might alreadyknow this, but if you didn't, if
you've been to Franklin falls inthe past, it's different now in
(12:26):
the winter, so the snow Park hasbeen moved up to the summer
trailhead, which is great,because that eliminates like,
four miles of walking on theroad. Yeah, that's where this,
that's what they say. You know,we'll see where, like at, you
know, mid, late January, 22 whatis this? Late January? I don't
(12:52):
know. We'll see if that's whatthey're actually doing, but
we're recording this inDecember, and, you know, they
they said that they were blowingit. So we'll see what happens.
But that makes it shorter,easier to get to and, yeah, just
a really great experience. Oneother thing I want to mention
(13:16):
about Franklin falls, it isalways icy. You've got to have
spikes to go there. Andsometimes there is snow on the
hillside, the base of the falls.
And if that's the case, therecan be significant avalanche
danger there at the base of thefalls. So if there's not snow
(13:39):
there, then you don't have toworry about that. But if there
is snow there, like there oftenis 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 thewaterfall, it's just that last
bit that is exposed toavalanches, so you got to be
careful there. And then I guessthe last one I would mention for
(14:03):
me is Twin Falls in North Bend.
It's one of the most famoushikes around Seattle. It's
bananas in the summer, it'sbananas in the spring, it's
bananas in at least throughOctober. But man, in the middle
of winter, it's much quieter,and the falls are just like all
waterfalls that aren't in thehigh country, and super frozen.
(14:27):
I mean, it's just spectacularduring 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 trailconnects to the Palouse to
cascade trail. You can go offinto Mount Washington, and so
you can make a big day out ofit, absolutely
Jennie Flaming (14:45):
you sure can.
And just to go from the trailhead kind of up to where the
waterfall is, that's going to beabout three miles round trip and
about 400 feet of elevationgain. But like you were saying,
Craig, you can extend. That upfor many, many, many miles if
you want to have a longerouting. Also super kid friendly
hike. And if you have kids, youprobably know that already, but
(15:08):
like you know it the logs,there's boulders, there's a
river, there's a waterfall, it'sshort. There's lots of
interesting things to look at.
It's a good, good kid hike nottoo far to carry them if you
have to carry them back. I'm noteven a parent, and I've carried
(15:28):
a toddler back from so anyway.
Well, cool. Well, that's a greatlist. Happy Winter waterfalls,
everybody. Thank you for joiningus 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? Ifso, the link right below the tip
jar lets you leave a voice memofor 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 bycontributing to our tip jar. You
don't need an account, andthere's no commitment. It's the
first link in the show notes. Wealso have links in the show
notes to our work, both Craig'sbooks, 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 episodeyou
Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast.
I'm your host, Jennie ThwingFlaming, and I'm your co host,
Craig Romano, Craig and I arehappy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive. Allright, Craig, today we're
(00:28):
talking about winter waterfallhikes, and we've talked about
waterfall hikes before, andwe'll probably talk about them
again, and we'll probably have afew repeats in here. But for
those of you listening today,we're really focusing on hikes
to waterfalls that are reallyparticularly spectacular during
(00:52):
the winter time. And a couplethings I want to just mention
before we dive into this. Numberone is that around waterfalls in
the winter, you have to bereally careful about ice. You
know, even if you don't see snownearby, some of the places that
we're gonna talk about can bereally treacherous. So you
(01:13):
definitely want some spikes foryour feet. And
Craig Romano (01:16):
the thing is, I think sometimes you may not be
thinking the trail might beclear. So could be an area, yes,
but you have, you had a coldsnap, and what happens with
waterfalls, particularly in thewinter time, yep, the spray, the
spray zone, and that water isgoing to splash out and it's
going to freeze on contact inthese areas. So if you're trying
to get the good view close thatthat ledge that's normally
perfectly fine to get on, thatcould be a death trap, you know,
(01:38):
you're going to slide right outinto. So you gotta be very, very
careful that
Jennie Flaming (01:41):
Craig, what kind of spikes Do you? Do you carry?
Like Microsoft, yeah, routinely.
And what, what? Brian, do youlike yak yak tracks? Good, yeah,
that's so funny. I'm very antiyak track. I'm a spike gal.
Okay, not the tracks, but that'sgood. That's good. People ask me
that all the time. So can you?
(02:04):
Can you just before we get intothis, I feel like it's worth
mentioning, like the differencebetween those.
okay, so yak traks, it's notthat they're lots of people wear
them, and they're great. I'llexplain why they're pretty
popular, yeah, yeah, in aminute. But they're, they're
(02:26):
like chains for your feet. Sothey have these, well, all of
the things we're gonna mentionhave that. So they're like
something that you pull on overyour 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
(02:47):
make like a hash pattern on thebottom. And I wear, I have two,
you know, I lived in Alaska fora long time, so I have three
pairs of spikes. Wow, I don't, Idon't, I don't use all three of
them here when I spend a lot oftime in Alaska, as I think
people know already, so I usedifferent combos there, but here
(03:08):
I typically wear I'm not surehow it's pronounced, but the
coludas, they are, they are alsoa rubber thing that you pull
over. But they're almost morelike crampons that they have.
They have teeth on the thelittle things so so guides in
Alaska that do glacier trekkingtypically have that brand, and
(03:28):
that's overkill for a lot ofwhat happens in Washington, but
like Franklin falls, which we'lltalk about in a few minutes. I
always bring those when I gothere. But then I'll also just
say that another repair that Ihave is, like, a much less
expensive pair that is just likeone Velcro strap, that they're
(03:49):
like $20 on Amazon, so they'reway cheaper. And that works for
lots of things. And I also havethose, and sometimes I bring
those instead. So I'll put linksto all of these in the show
notes down there if you want tocheck out. And I'll let you know
which ones are Craig's favoriteof my favorite. So yeah,
(04:10):
definitely check that out downthere. But then the other thing,
besides spikes, I wanted to justmention, is just things we've
talked about with winter hikingbefore, like down trees and, you
know, road access and some ofthe things we're intentionally
talking about waterfalls thatshould be accessible in the
(04:31):
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'rerecording this. In December.
It's closed because of stormdamage from the bomb cyclone.
So, you know, normally, that's agreat winter hike. And maybe,
(04:51):
you know, this podcast is goingto be up in late January or
early February, so maybe it'llbe open then. But just keep an
eye out. You really need to dothat extra legwork during the
winter time.
Craig Romano (05:04):
Yeah, I mean, that's true for all hikes in the
winter, the chances and evenbecause the micro climates here
and everything, like the bombcyclone, didn't hit us as hard
as gadget, it was other areas.
So you're thinking, well, thetrails are fine here, and then
you get an hour so, I mean, it'samazing. Just could be one value
damage. So definitely do yourhomework on that. And same
thing, there might be, crews aregonna get right out there
(05:26):
immediately and clear it. Theremight not be for a while. Yep,
Jennie Flaming (05:30):
exactly. So, yeah. So in January, when you're
listening to this, maybe thatwill have resolved, and wells
falls will be open again, butmaybe not. So check on that.
Okay, so Craig, do you want tostart and tell us about some of
your favorite winter waterfallsin Washington? Yeah,
Craig Romano (05:45):
you're mentioning Wallace falls, which is
definitely one, but close toWallace falls too, bridal veil.
Yeah, is amazing early in theyear. Again, it's pretty low
parts so you can get up there.
Yeah, it is intense. And there'sanother one too. That's a tough
hike. You want to wear seriousrain 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
(06:08):
a great one to do in the wintertime. Um, one of, one of the
it's absolutely spectacular,beautiful. Not it's very
accessible, but not the easiestto get to. If you ever been to
stehen and Steven is not placeyou go just for the day. It's
incredible in the winter time.
And matter of fact, my firsttime I ever went to stehen was
in the winter time, because youcan get some great snow
(06:30):
shooting. I've never been therein the winter. Rainbow Falls is
absolutely gorgeous in thewintertime with, you know, you
have all the the ice crusting onthe sides and everything. You
have pine forest over there.
It's just gorgeous. I love that.
But, you know, just moreaccessible. Where else? You
know, the gorge. Course, so manygreat falls in the Gorge and
I've talked about this adnauseam about most people go to
(06:53):
Multnomah, and a lot of theseplaces in the summertime, when
they're flowing, least thewinter time, they're incredible.
I mean, just, it's just how muchrange can be a lot less people.
So on the Washington side isHardy, and Rodney falls in
Beacon Rock State Park. Thosethings are absolutely roaring in
the winter time. They're great.
There's even little falls likeover in Buck Creek, in that
(07:13):
area, in the DNR property, thatnormally would just be kind of
just okay. Falls are reallyroaring this time of year.
You've got over on you don'tthink about the San Juan
Islands, and it's one of myfavorite places in the winter
time too, because because of theclimb and everything cascade
falls in Moran State Park, it'sbeautiful. It's surrounded by
Incredibly, the biggest track ofold growth forests in the San
(07:36):
Juan Islands, too. So that'sthat is really neat. It's
something you're not expectingto see. If you spend a lot of
time in the San Juan, you'reseeing more of a manicure
pastoral environment, againstseeing what a wilder San Juan.
Yeah, you still look like and
Jennie Flaming (07:52):
there's several other like, little waterfalls,
and whatever the word is forthings that aren't exactly a
waterfall, but are like, goinganyway, there's lots of really
beautiful water in there. Yeah,
Craig Romano (08:04):
it's funny. When I'm writing about it, you don't
want to say the same to me ascascades, 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, whichis the French, which just means
waterfall. So that's kind ofredundant when you have to shoot
falls. That's right, waterfall,waterfalls, yeah. So you'll see
that anywhere, um, you know, theother place too, like for local
(08:26):
coming urban trails, we'vetalked about Whatcom falls, so,
yeah, so great outside ofBellingham, right? Actually,
it's right in Bellingham, samething in the summertime, it's
not that impressive, you know,going over the sandstone. But in
the winter time. It's a wholedifferent story. Yeah, in
Larabee state park there is,there's a waterfall that only
comes out in the wintertime. Soif you've ever done the
(08:47):
fragrance Lake pike and, yeah,and you walk back on the fire
road, yep, there is a waterfallin the wintertime. Cool right
there. It's very, very, verypretty in this in six months out
of the year, it's not there.
Yeah. So you have a lot of thatto look for. And same thing in
capital State Forest too. You'vegot Porter falls and mime falls,
which are just not that excitingin the summertime. Yeah, in the
(09:08):
wintertime, they're reallypretty. They are so
Jennie Flaming (09:11):
and those are in capital State Forest. So, you
know, low lands usually snowfree, accessible in the winter,
Craig Romano (09:19):
and then another one my absolute favorite places.
And I never even thought aboutthis because I spent so much
time in this area over theyears, but I've always been out
there in the winter time, excuseme, and that's in the Quinault
rainforest. And so yeah, lastyear, actually went out there in
September. I was doing someresearch, and I'm hiking. I'm
telling my buddy who had neverbeen there, oh, this is really
(09:41):
beautiful. Like none of them,they were just trickles, because
I had always seen these inFebruary and in March. So again,
a lot of people visiting therainforest are going there in
the summertime when it's notraining. Yeah, go there in the
wintertime. And Quinault it'sgreat because you can stay at
the lodge right there, or evenit's an hour you're only an hour
away. From Aberdeen or oceanshores if you want to stay in a
(10:02):
lodge, you know, or, you know,north so it's a great place to
go in the winter time. Yeah. Andwonderful trail system. The
roads good to get in there. Thewaterfalls are amazing. There's
a series of them, you can, Ican. They're really, really
pretty. This whole network of adog friendly because it's in the
National Forest, family friendlyfor us, yeah. So those are some
of my favorite places for forchecking out waterfalls in this
(10:25):
time of year. Nice. What aboutyou? 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 kindof near Olympia, um, but I would
say that my two favorites, andthen I have kind of a close
third, you know, for myself forwinter hiking. You know, I live
(10:50):
in Seattle. Are Franklin fallsnear snow. Call me pass, which
is very famous. We'll talk moreabout that in a minute. And
then, um little mayshaw falls inEatonville. Um, pack pack
forest, yep, in the pack forest.
So little mayshaw Falls isactually three different
waterfalls. So it's kind ofcool, because you can do all of
them, or you can do one of them,um, and my cousin lives in
(11:14):
Eatonville, so that's kind of afun winter tradition for us is
to go to do that hike. Um, shedoes it, you know, she lives a
couple blocks away, so she doesit all the time. But, um, I
think what I really love aboutthose two is they're they're
really special in the winter. Imean, they have lots of water in
(11:37):
them. They're less crowded, butthey're also very dynamic. And
what I mean by that is, likeneither of them, neither of
those places, typically freezecompletely, but there's almost
always some amount of ice. Andso I think every time I go
there, it's different, and thatis really cool. It's really fun
(12:02):
for photography. It's really funto be like, what's happening
today. So yeah, a couple thingsto mention about Franklin falls.
So if, if you listen to the um,the snowshoeing podcast that I
did recently, you might alreadyknow this, but if you didn't, if
you've been to Franklin falls inthe past, it's different now in
(12:26):
the winter, so the snow Park hasbeen moved up to the summer
trailhead, which is great,because that eliminates like,
four miles of walking on theroad. Yeah, that's where this,
that's what they say. You know,we'll see where, like at, you
know, mid, late January, 22 whatis this? Late January? I don't
(12:52):
know. We'll see if that's whatthey're actually doing, but
we're recording this inDecember, and, you know, they
they said that they were blowingit. So we'll see what happens.
But that makes it shorter,easier to get to and, yeah, just
a really great experience. Oneother thing I want to mention
(13:16):
about Franklin falls, it isalways icy. You've got to have
spikes to go there. Andsometimes there is snow on the
hillside, the base of the falls.
And if that's the case, therecan be significant avalanche
danger there at the base of thefalls. So if there's not snow
(13:39):
there, then you don't have toworry about that. But if there
is snow there, like there oftenis 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 thewaterfall, it's just that last
bit that is exposed toavalanches, so you got to be
careful there. And then I guessthe last one I would mention for
(14:03):
me is Twin Falls in North Bend.
It's one of the most famoushikes around Seattle. It's
bananas in the summer, it'sbananas in the spring, it's
bananas in at least throughOctober. But man, in the middle
of winter, it's much quieter,and the falls are just like all
waterfalls that aren't in thehigh country, and super frozen.
(14:27):
I mean, it's just spectacularduring 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 trailconnects to the Palouse to
cascade trail. You can go offinto Mount Washington, and so
you can make a big day out ofit, absolutely
Jennie Flaming (14:45):
you sure can.
And just to go from the trailhead kind of up to where the
waterfall is, that's going to beabout three miles round trip and
about 400 feet of elevationgain. But like you were saying,
Craig, you can extend. That upfor many, many, many miles if
you want to have a longerouting. Also super kid friendly
hike. And if you have kids, youprobably know that already, but
(15:08):
like you know it the logs,there's boulders, there's a
river, there's a waterfall, it'sshort. There's lots of
interesting things to look at.
It's a good, good kid hike nottoo far to carry them if you
have to carry them back. I'm noteven a parent, and I've carried
(15:28):
a toddler back from so anyway.
Well, cool. Well, that's a greatlist. Happy Winter waterfalls,
everybody. Thank you for joiningus 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? Ifso, the link right below the tip
jar lets you leave a voice memofor 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 bycontributing to our tip jar. You
don't need an account, andthere's no commitment. It's the
first link in the show notes. Wealso have links in the show
notes to our work, both Craig'sbooks, 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 episodeyou
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