Wallace Falls Hike

http://www.warpeyes.com/albums/wallace%20falls/

This weekend I had to work on Saturday, but in the absence of anything pressing to do in the evening, I did a short two hour hike to the Coal Creek Falls. Unfortunately, since it was starting to get a little dark and ended up raining on me pretty heavily, the pictures weren't really worth sharing. (As an aside, I stopped to get some food from Whole Foods on the way home and the guy behind the counter asked, "Hey, how'd you get all wet?")

Much better was Sunday which, despite weather reports to the contrary, proved to be a gorgeous day. So I took this opportunity to go to Wallace Falls, a state park right next to Gold Bar, Washington or perhaps better identified by Seattlites as 13 miles east of Monroe. This is part of the Western Cascades. Particularly nice was that I had company this time, as Richard and Na came along as well.

This was a great hike on a beautiful day, about five miles round trip and an elevation climb of about 1500 feet. Along the way, there are four different lookouts where you can see Wallace Falls at various points. The last leg of the hike, from the middle falls to the upper falls, is the most difficult and since I think the middle falls is the most impressive, those that might want to hike this but take it a little easier wouldn't need to feel like they are missing the best part by turning back after reaching the middle falls. I was very happy, though, to go on to the upper falls and if there had been time (and Richard and Na had been up for it) I would have continued on to Wallace Lake, which adds an extra three hours to the hike.

Last week's aborted Summit Lake attempt made this hike all that much sweeter. It was good to pick something at a lower elevation this early in the season. I'll try Summit Lake again later, along with the many other opportunities in the Mt. Ranier area.