If you’re a resident or visitor to the Seattle area, chances are high that you’ve been to Franklin Falls, one of the most popular hikes in the region. Located in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near Snoqualmie Pass, this easy, short and highly scenic stroll is hard to beat. You start by walking along an easy trail next to the gorgeous South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, marveling at the huge trees lining the riverbanks. The lush old growth riparian forest here takes you back in time. This is also an opportunity to examine a number of old cabins on both sides of the river. Some are boarded up, while others look inhabited.
The trail continues gently uphill, following the curve of the river, and soon the river canyon deepens and becomes inaccessible from the trail, although you can see the waterfalls below. About a mile further along the trail brings you to a narrow staircase carved in the rock where you descend to view the spectacular Franklin Falls, falling 100 feet to the ground in a torrent of water. There is a deep pool underneath for summertime swimming if you enjoy cold water.
Max and I have been enjoying this hike for years and have taken most of our out-of-town visitors here. Back in the day, we would get up early and try to find a parking spot. There was a tiny parking lot and everyone wound up parking along the forest service roads in the area. There would be lines of cars parked everywhere. Just recently, the Forest Service built an enormous parking lot and put a kiosk in place so you can purchase a permit, so the place has definitely become very civilized.
This summer, I got to experience Franklin Falls in a whole new way. Those of you who know me can see where this is going 😉. As it turns out, there is a technical canyoneering route descending the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, with Franklin Falls being the final rappel. Due to the popularity of the Falls, the Forest Service has requested that people do not descend the falls during the weekends, holidays or other high visitation times. An interagency pass, NW Forest Pass or a National Forest Day Pass is required to park at the trailhead. Beta can be found here: Snoqualmie River (South Fork) – ropewiki
It was a chilly Wednesday morning at the end of August when I met up in the new parking lot with some local friends, Cole, Eline and Kim. Sadly, Max was working and unable to join. There is a very short shuttle to the upper part of the canyon where we dropped in. There are a couple things to note about this adventure. The first is that this is definitely the most civilized canyoneeing experience I’ve ever had. There is a trail running all along the canyon rim that allows you to pop in and out of the canyon at any time, so you can skip a lot of boring creek walking or just walk around anything you don’t want to do. The second thing to note is that this is one of the coldest canyons I have ever been in. Granted, it wasn’t a particularly warm morning, but the water was so cold that we could see our breath. I was wearing a 5mm neoprene wetsuit with .5mm neoprene underlayers plus a paddle jacket on top and I was not particularly toasty.
The entry into the canyon, right off a small parking strip, is fairly dramatic. There is a pretty waterfall called “Fall into the Wall” falls, with a deep pool underneath. The entry is a 10-foot jump or rappel right into the pool. One of our party decided to rappel, but most of us jumped right into the freezing water. Good morning!
After our warm-up, or should I say cool-down, we found ourselves in a beautiful river corridor, walking in the streambed and admiring the forest and rocks. I found a granite rock with a band on it engraved in a perfect “v”. Soon we came to a section of narrows that was just a crack with the water cascading through at insane velocity. Fortunately, there was a trail that we could use to walk around. Our next obstacle was a cliff that was at least 20 feet tall but looked like 25 feet from the top. I’m pretty sure that was the highest jump I have done to date. It was a bit terrifying jumping off the cliff, but it wasn’t very technical in terms of having to avoid any rocks or obstacles on the bottom. Needless to say, this cooled me down a bit further.
A third potential jump is off a ledge right by the trail, where our friend Cole showed off his jumping skills by doing a full 360 in the air before hitting the water. We got some great photos but opted to walk down to the water instead of jumping as we were all a bit chilly. At this point, we had a decision to make. We could either continue down the stream bed for a long creek walk that wasn’t particularly interesting, or we could take the rather appealing trail and bypass the creek walk. The choice was unanimous, and we hopped on the trail. Much to our surprise, we saw two canyoneers below us in the stream bed making their way down. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s rare to see canyoneers in the wild in the PNW!
A short walk later, we arrived at the crux of the canyon: a sequence of three rappels, with Franklin Falls as the last in the sequence. The first rappel, off a large tree and along the edge of a waterfall, brought us back down into the stream bed. With the water rushing down the Falls thundering to our right along the river channel, we had two technical challenges to overcome. The first was setting up a traverse line to an anchor station while walking down steep and slippery rocks. Eline, one of our party, volunteered to set up the traverse line, but didn’t notice the anchor station at the top of the ledge and went too far, making it down the second rappel when we noticed the problem. We blew our whistles for her to stop in a safe spot and Cole set up another traverse line to the anchor station. Kim and I followed him and I was able to meat anchor him down, then set up a belay for him to get safely to the next anchor station for Franklin Falls. We cleaned up the first traverse line and I set up a rappel for me and Kim to descend into a deep pothole filled with water and then walked across using a traverse line to the edge of the Falls.
Eline had already gone down the waterfall by the time we arrived. Then it was our turn to experience the sheer joy of descending Franklin Falls on a rope. The rappel goes down the right side of the falls, and is mostly out of the water, although you still get a shower on the way down. Of course, there are also hikers at the bottom who are a bit bewildered by a bunch of people in wetsuits dropping out of the sky on a rope. Many photos were taken.
We relaxed on the shore, had our lunch and tried to warm up by shedding the wetsuits and sitting in the sun. Then we took the pleasant trail back to the main parking lot to change and retrieve our cars. What a great half-day canyon and a great way to experience something I’ve done so many times in a totally new way.
