Snoqualmie Falls is located east of Seattle, WA. It was a good 30-mile drive from our hotel. Judging by what we saw of Seattle traffic, it was not a guarantee that we will not be caught in one of its heavier traffic as we navigate the roadways. The better solution, we thought, was to start even earlier. We were on the road before sunrise. Skipping breakfast at the hotel was even necessary just to get a good head start. Vehicular traffic was already getting heavier by the time that we hit Interstate 405. It was the same for Interstate 90. Luckily, traffic only slowed down but did not turn the interstate into a big parking lot.

The City of Issaquah

The City of Issaquah is located around halfway between Snoqualmie Falls and our hotel in Seattle. We had a short break from driving here to visit Jakob Two Trees, the last of the four Pacific Northwest Trolls that we visited. The road narrowed as we got off Interstate 90 until we reached Issaquah Community Center. The houses on both sides of the narrowed road looked attractive with their characteristic Northwest Regional style. We even thought of moving to Issaquah without thinking of cost of living and job opportunities.

Snoqualmie Falls

It was another twenty to thirty minutes before we reached Snoqualmie Falls. We arrived early. It was easy parking a vehicle in a half-filled parking lot. This did not spare us from the scourge of parking in a popular place – the parking fee. There was no entrance fee.

The two viewing decks

Several flights of stairs had to be climbed to reach the upper viewing deck of the falls. The viewing deck gave a bird eye’s view of the waterfall, the plunge pool area, part of the water runoff, as well as the hydroelectric plant. The cliff’s edge was obstructing a full view of the bottom of the waterfalls. Reading the signs on the upper viewing deck helped a lot in showing us a trail leading to the bottom of the waterfalls. The warning to this route was a downhill descent of 374 feet over 0.7 mile. We went ahead with the hike despite knowing also that there is a parking lot near the bottom of the falls! That was our big exercise for the day!

The trail hit a T intersection. The trail on the right was leading to the rocky bottom of the river. We didn’t pick this trail as we did not want our feet wet. The trail on the left was leading to the lower viewing deck. This was where we headed. There was an old power plant right before entering the gate to the lower viewing deck. The power plant was off limits to the public. This viewing deck gave us a better vantage point to the falls.

What went down, must climb up

It took a lot of effort to get back to the parking area. Just like they say, “what goes up, must come down”. This time around, “what went down, must climb up”. The trek was slow and arduous but we made it.