Wallace Falls

Date of Hiking: Sunday, January 31, 2010
Trail Length: 10 Miles out and back
Level of Difficulty: Medium

This was a typically overcast Pacific Northwest sky in the usually wet month of January. I was hoping to escape through a low hike dry and cozy. So I met up with David and headed to the Wallace Falls trails near Highway 2 that travels across the Stevens Pass to the Eastern Washington via Leavenworth. There are many a nice hiking opportunity in this area. This was going to be my first meaningful hiking venture outside of, as David would put it, my "Stomping Grounds" along the I-90 corridor. With the highest elevation being around 1800' we were basically aiming to stay below the snow line.

As our luck would have it, a steady drizzle began by the time we got started at the trail head near the town of Gold Bar. The trail runs by the Wallace River and splits near the confluence of the north and the south forks. We continued along the south fork. From here onward, the three falls appeared in view one after another as we kept going: the Lower Falls, the Middle Falls, and the Upper Falls. The views are spectacular from view platforms close to the water falls, specially the Upper Falls..

Most folks would return from the Middle Falls and some from the Upper Falls.We decided to carry on towards the Wallace Falls. All along, the rains too continued to fall. The first part of the trail beyond the Upper Falls actually runs on an old logging road. At the fork at about a mile and a half, we turned right and continued towards the Wallace Lake and came upon it about another mile further away. We did continue along the south bank of the lake to the North West end where a stream flows into the lake over the Pebble Beach.We had the option to continue further in the northwesterly direction to Jay Lake and Shaw Lake. However, the rain by now having turned into a downpour, we decided to stop right there and have our snack lunch sitting at the beach under umbrella before turning around and return.

On the return trip, we chose the alternate Greg Ball trail at the southeast edge of the lake. The Greg Ball trail ends at the DNR road that follows to the town called Start Up. But the Woody Trail, one and half mile long, starts off that same road immediately towards main trail connecting the trail head. By the time we were done, we traversed about 11 miles and had our full share of a hike in the rain,


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