Finding Silver Falls
The first time I saw Silver Falls was in the spring of 2020 in the middle of the Covid shut down. Like most of the country, Scott and I were suffering from severe cabin fever and were looking for an outdoor place to enjoy.
We heard the National Parks were closed to cars, but open to foot and bike traffic and decided to walk into the Stevens Canyon entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. Grove of the Patriarchs is just a short distance from the entrance and we knew we could easily walk there.
There were several others who had the same idea as us and we weren’t alone in enjoying the beauty of the park. We finished looking at the grove of trees and started back out when we spotted another trail by the bridge that seemed to go toward the river. Of course we had to check it out.
What we had “discovered” was the Silver Falls trail. How had we missed this!!?
The trail follows the Ohanapecosh River through rapids, canyons, and at the far point takes you to a huge, picturesque waterfall.
It was the middle of spring, and the water was running fast and high from the snow melt. It was incredible! Some people were going right up to the edge of the rock canyon for a better look. I felt more comfortable staying back a bit. There’s no way someone survives a tumble into THAT!
We saw several small waterfalls along the way, and then we came to the big one at the end. It isn’t as big a drop as some but there’s something very impressive about this one just the same. We stared at it and wondered how it was that we’d been coming to the mountain for years and didn’t know this was here.
The sun hitting the white water made for difficult pictures. I’ll share a picture I took at a later time when the lighting worked better.
The hike doesn’t have any mountain views, but the views of the river are pretty great. It’s a good place to have in mind when you’re visiting the mountain but the clouds are covering the peak. The views of this hike aren’t dependent on being able to see the mountain.
The trail can also be accessed from Ohanapecosh Campground. The Stevens Canyon Park entrance and SR 123 are closed in the winter making it a much longer hike at that time of year. We haven’t tried that. We just wait until the road open up.
On to the next adventure!