After a hearty breakfast at the Original Pancake House in Kirkland on Saturday morning, our first stop was the longest hike of the day—5.5 miles RT for four waterfalls at Wallace Falls State Park.
The trail started off pretty flat and after a half mile, we came upon “Small Falls”, the first of the four waterfalls. The trail followed the Wallace River most of the way and even though the parking lot was mostly full, it felt like we had the place mostly to ourselves save for the overlooks.
the warm up – Small Falls
Almost two miles later, we got to the first real falls, Lower Falls… surprisingly the cascades below are not considered Lower Falls, you need to follow a short trail to the overlook. I wonder how many folks miss that one?
cascades and the middle falls in the distance
A short uphill climb later and there were beautiful views of the Middle Falls and valley below. So it wasn’t just gorgeous views facing one way!
the stunning Middle Falls
the Snoqualmie National Forest from the Middle Falls overlook
The next portion of the trail was switchbacks and a steady uphill climb to the top of Middle Falls and finally to Upper Falls. A total of 2.8 miles.
Upper Falls – we made it!
The sign at the top says to allow for 2 hours to get back down, but I think it took us about 50 minutes. Hard on the lungs going up and harder on the knees coming back down but this was a great hike to start the day.