Rattlesnake Ledge & Twin Falls

I’ve been wanting to check out Rattlesnake Ledge for quite some time as it’s reviewed as being very rewarding. The views definitely lived up to what I’ve heard!

Road to the TH from the parking lot

It’s much different making a trip out to the Cascades. First of all the city traffic sucks! Leaving in the morning after rush hour it was still quite busy and backed up in places, I’m sure that wasn’t nearly as bad as it could be. I’m used to the nice single lane roads that bring us out to the Olympics! We headed up to Bellevue to pick up Stephen and then east towards Snoqualmie. We planned on doing 2 short hikes, Rattlesnake Ledge and Twin Falls, and if time allowed maybe another short one in the area.

At the first view point of the lake about halfway up.

Justin at a switchback.

Justin is visiting from Hawaii where he is an avid hiker has an awesome group called the Hiking Oahu Trailblazers (H.O.T.) It was so nice to have the opportunity to join him on the trail here in Washington…even though with my sense of direction I ended up having to follow the tourist to the trailhead! Lucky me I got a fancy shirt to represent here in WA, thanks Justin! Look him up if you ever visit HI and join him on the trails! The Rattlesnake Lake park was very nice, and already busy on a Friday morning. There were so many diverse groups on the trail, from a group moms carrying tiny babies, high schoolers, families young and old, frat boys drinking beers as they hiked and it even looked like what could have been a couple field trips! Definitively not used to so much action on the trail, but because it is so popular I’ll admit the trail was well

maintained and in excellent condition. I might have been able to drive my car up it even! ;P

Last stretch to the ledge

A couple view spots along the way where you could see Rattlesnake lake below as we climbed up the constant incline towards the top. There’s some switch backs on the way, but nothing drastic. There is only one downed tree over the trail, it’s thin and easily ducked over and I don’t think there’s a plan to remove it since it seems everyone carves their names into it.

We noticed off trail there was another trail in spots through the trees. Looking it up now I see that there was an old trail that made the trek to the ledge a little shorter and steeper. I wonder how old that was because the main trail is definitely established and mainly used. We didn’t see anyone going on the other trail through the trees.



Be careful of the gap on the ledge



Emerging at the ledge it was a happening place, even with all the people we passed coming down it was still a full ledge! Everyone taking pictures and relaxing with lunch to take in the view. After we took a few pics we explored a little more and headed down the ledge that was vacant. The guys ventured down a little trail through the trees and brush to get to this bottom ledge, I didn’t spot them until they were already down there so I took what looked like a little trail down the rocks…it was quite slippery with all the loose rock and I halfway scooted on my tush since slipping so close to the edge was not on my to do list. It was nice having a spot all to ourselves, we couldn’t even see the crowds from down there, they must not have seen us either because no one came down our way the whole time we took a bunch of silly pictures. Before heading back up to the trail we took the chance to snag the geocache hidden in the woods down there. J

Lower ledge off to the side

Rattlesnake Lake and the parking lot below.





Stefani, Stephen & Justin on Rattlesnake Ledge





Discover Pass kiosk



We considered heading up another couple miles to see the other ledge but then just decided to head down and check out Twin Falls since it was just up the road a couple exits. The TH was busy here as well. You need a Discover Pass here and I was skeptical how one would purchase a pass if they didn’t already have one…turns out they have a fancy pass machine at the TH that will print it out right then and there for you! Wow. This trail was just like the last, busy with all walks of life. I have never shared a trail with so many people before, the closest would have to be Mt Townsend. The path to Twin Falls is pretty flat along the river at first then the incline starts. The mile seemed longer than it should have been, but that’s probably due to just finishing the hike up to the ledge right before. There were a couple park benches along the trail to take a breather, if you can find an empty seat.

Almost to the falls the trail splits…there is a staircase heading straight down but we first continued heading up the trail where it turns into a boardwalk of sorts with a few stairs and coming to the bridge that goes right over the falls. They were very pretty but for some reason I expected it to look different. Still fun though. We headed up the trail a little ways more before deciding there really was no point since it met up with another trail and we had no reason to go that way since we had already made our destination. On the way back down the trail we took the split down the stairs…this is the view I was expecting! The lower part of the falls is outstanding. Make sure you take the stairs down to the viewing area. I wonder if most people pass this part up not realizing it’s also a spot to view the falls because it seemed most people were hanging out up at the upper viewing. You can only see one fall from each of the view points, I wonder if that’s why they call it Twin Falls?

Back at the cars there was a Sherriff patrolling. I don’t think he was ticketing anyone because there were quite a few cars without passes and when he left we didn’t notice and tickets on those cars. I’ve heard there is a lot of theft and vandalism at the THs out this way…that’s unfortunate. On the map at the TH we noticed there was another falls another couple exits down the freeway. We decided to go check it out but as we were getting close and didn’t find the road we voted to skip it since we were famished!

Heading back to the original exit for Rattlesnake we stopped up to get some food at the BBQ place located inside the 76 station. It was surprisingly good for being a restaurant in a gas station! The portions were generous and the food was tasty. I would recommend trying it for a quick bite after a hike in the area. It’s closer than going back into North Bend or continuing on over the Pass.

It was a great day to go hiking! It is very apparent now that I am totally biased on the Cascades versus the Olympics.…I completely enjoyed the hikes and the views were amazing but the freeway of people is a bit much. Can anyone suggest some less crowed trails over on that side?! I know there has to be some out there!!