Taylor River, Otter Falls

11/16/13

Wet wet WET! This was quite the rainy day hike. After the storm that passed through dumping a lot of snow as low as 2500’ the day prior we decided on a river hike.

On the road to the trail head right before it turns to gravel there was a big tree that blocked the road. It was right before the road met back up (from the loop) so you had to turn around and go all the way back around. I guess a lot of people go to the right (like we did) because there were a lot of people backtracking!

 

 

We got a little turned around with our directions and had to stop and walk around the campground before we figured out which way to go. Between the signs at the trailheads and our book’s direction (which weren’t exactly on the same page as each other) we finally got on track just before 11:00.




Trail starts by crossing over
Taylor River

Trail up to Otter Falls

This trial is pretty straightforward. You follow the trail to Snoqualmie Lake (which we didn’t initially know which caused us to get confused) which goes along…wait for it…Taylor River! Our destination was just to get to Otter Falls, which was more than enough in this downpour!

 




Climbing down to the falls

The trail to Otter Falls, and Lipsy Lake below it, is a little side trail off the main path marked by a couple cairns. You hike up through the trees a few hundred feet or so before emerging at the base of an impressive slab of stone with streams of water trickling down into the lake.

During our trip there were a few people camped out just inside the trees overlooking the falls. They’re in for a wet one! At least they’ll have the place to themselves for the night. Besides that group there were a few other groups of hikers. A couple and their puppy turned around when we got to them short of their destination of Otter Falls because the pup was getting too cold, I wish I could have told them they were so close!!! Not that I knew how close we were at the time.

LOTS of water on the trail, at times we were walking through ponds it seemed. In addition to rain it hailed on our hike, too.  There was snow on the trail also, but at a closer glance it looked like accumulation of hail.

Still without my GPS I am unsure of our final mileage and time, but it took us about 1.5 hours each way on this almost completely flat trail. Glad to get out of the rain, I’m hesitant on camping in it this upcoming weekend! >_<