September 6, 2019

Twin Falls Trail is a 3.6 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail in the Snoqualmie Mountain region located near North Bend, Washington, that features a waterfall and is rated as moderate.   My new women’s trekking group headed out early for a Friday morning commune with nature – and oh yeah, some “training”.

We climbed away from the river, through the woods and were immediately greeted by walls of maidenhair ferns, some towering fir, maple and cedar trees, obviously very old – and a decent sized hill. Up the incline and over a series of switchbacks we did ascend.  Climbing in earnest we came upon, “The Benches” and were rewarded with a partial view of the Lower Falls. I feel extremely fortunate to have access to so many miracles of nature in my own “backyard”. 

Continuing on our way we encountered a set of (104) stairs descending to a viewpoint of the Lower Falls as they plunged over a 150 foot cliff.  Such power and beauty!!  Another quarter mile brought us to a bridge spanning the narrow Twin Falls canyon. This vantage point allowed us to observe several plunge pools of the Upper Falls upstream and the edge of the Lower Falls downstream.  And, less than a quarter mile from the bridge, we were able to view the Upper Falls from above.  I really enjoyed these changing perspectives to see the Falls.

As seems to be the case when trekking in the mountains, our trail just kept on climbing steeply!  Eventually we came upon an intersection with the John Wayne Pioneer Trail – a 108 mile long path that follows the old Chicago-Milwaukee-St. Paul-Pacific Railroad from Cedar Falls to Vantage.  We had a brief snack and then made our way back down, which went considerably faster – HA!  By now this popular trail was getting busy and by the time we stopped for lunch in a grove of trees to descend our remaining mile, we had many opportunities to greet fellow hikers, their kiddos and dogs!  What a great morning and way to ease into the weekend!!