The more and more I go on these adventures, then more I find out things about myself. First off, I really need to do a better job checking the weather, and secondly, I need to find someone who’s done these hikes before. Luckily this trip to Twin Falls wasn’t too crazy, but it definitely was a hike!
Twin Falls | Olallie State Park
Twin Falls is kind of false name in it’s own right for these waterfalls. It wasn’t until after we did the hike, that I found out that it’s actually a set of 6 different drops but only 3 that are really visible. The first two tiers of the falls is only about 45 feet tall and drops into a large bowl right above the second two-stepped 30 foot falls. Not too far after that is another 20 foot falls (which we didn’t get to see because it’s right below the walking bridge, and I was too terrified to look), but then after another short jaunt is the most majestic of them all-a 135 foot horsetail falls! It seriously is stunning! The more I learn about these fall the cooler I think they are. These falls are actually a part of a hydroelectric project, but you would never know because it’s all above the waterfalls themselves.
These falls have been known by different names in the past. At one point they were the Upper Snoqualmie Falls, Upper Falls, Middle Twin Falls, and Upper Twin Falls. I hadn’t actually heard of any of them, but somehow stumbled on this hike while looking through different waterfall hikes through Washington.
There are two different trail heads that will take you to these falls. The first one is closer to North Bend, but the one we took is on the east side of North Bend. I did read that most of the people taking this trail use the westerly trailhead, but we like to be different. Our hike was a little less nature-ey than the other option. For the first 0.6 miles or so, you are walking along a PUD road. If you aren’t careful, you can even miss the start of the trail, like we did.
Online, it says that from the other trailhead, this hike is only about 2.6 miles with a 500 foot gain, but from our direction, it ended up being a 3.8 mile hike with a 1400 foot gain. That was a BIG difference for us, but we survived. It was a pretty easy hike in, because it was mostly downhill, but coming back out was definitely the more difficult part, like one would expect.
When we had checked out the waterfalls and were ready to head back to the car, it had been raining a little off an on, but with about half a mile left the flood gates opened and it started POURING. Luckily, we were on back on the road by then and I was able to run pretty much the rest of the way back to the car. We survived, SOAKED, but feeling pretty proud of this adventure.
I have come to the conclusion that when you take photos of a huge waterfall from the top, it really just kind of dwarfs the thing. This waterfall was definitely one of the prettiest we’ve seen, and maybe next time, we’ll take the other way around. 🙂
Trying to pick up boulders…. “It’s too heavy, mom!!” Yes…it probably weighs more than you child.
It may not be Spanish Moss, but it’s still stinkin’ neat!
The first set of drops…What you can’t see is the first one behind the rock right above the visible drop.
The bridge that crosses the gorge. It’s gotta be like 100+ feet high, and I was nervous. ha.
You can see the wash part of the falls on the right shot of the falls right under the bridge. That was as far as my head or my camera were going over the ledge.
There’s something like 104 stairs around this place to get to all the lookouts.
It really doesn’t look that big in photos, but this sucker is 135 feet tall, and freaking amazing!
The water is so clear!
Raylee says “this is what happens when my mom checks the weather and it says no rain until 6, but what it SHOULD have said was rain starting at 1 going through 6….” It was crazy…and she had her hood on. and her blanket over her.
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