Snoqualmie Falls

Moon The Transformer is responsible for the formation of Snoqualmie Falls

Why is falling water so Awesome?

On top just to the left of the Falls is the Salish Lodge and Spa, We found our way there for a light lunch. See a short video clip at http://youtu.be/RaSYYfsvHD8 In the video it may look as if it is raining but that is just the spray coming up from the floor if the falls.

We were lucky, The March Rains had the Falls almost at their max.

The spray billowed up and a fine mist fell on all the spectators.

Usually the Falls do not crank up till the Snow melts start in the mid to late spring.

The Admiral found the trail down to the bottom, I was not so sure I wanted to go all the way down, those returning back up the trail were huffing and puffing.

This is an example of the pipe in the background that delivers more water downhill to a secondary power plant.

They produce a lot of power by splitting up flow and redirecting it to several generators below the falls.

All that water was rushing, the sound filled the whole environment.

Sorry the pic just does not do it Justice, you will just have to go see it.

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls is just an hours drive from Seattle. The Admiral did her homework and we had a sunny weekend so we braved the weekend traffic which was not as bad as it could have been. This is a big deal when you only get the car out 3-4 times a month.There was a line of cars when we got there searching for parking and reluctantly I got in behind the slow moving line. It seemed as if all the parking spots were taken but there were several people returning to their cars to leave, I got lucky and one opened up right in front of us.As we walked down the sidewalk you could hear the falls and even though there were a lot of people there it was not hard to get a good viewing spot as there are so many all along the North wall of the canyon. 

The record March rains in the region had the Falls flowing heavier than normal at this time of year, usually you have to wait till the Snow melt gets going to see a show like this. That is something we learned after getting there. 

After taking lots of pics and the Admiral doing her usual lookout for wildlife spotting a Pereqrin Falcon that hunts from the ledges. We then walked the short hop up the hill to the Salish Lodge and found a nice bar, The Attic: http://www.salishlodge.com/attic.php  for a beer and a salad. We enjoyed the ambiance of the quaint lodge and took our time. I figured we would  exit after that but the Admiral wanted to take one more look. We walked to the bottom of the viewing areas and found a trail that had just been completed recently to the bottom of the Canyon. 

She wanted to go but I fussed a bit thinking getting down was easy but the hike back up might be more than I wanted to do. So I said lets just start down and check it out thinking we might just go half way and that would be enough. Well even little kids were going down with their parents and the trail is pretty steep. Some dads were carrying their kids and I thought the trip up was going to be fun for them! A few people passed us on their way back up huffing and puffing and I wanted to stop right there but the Admiral insisted. It really was worth it. they had a fine boardwalk built all along the rivers edge and an observation point a safe distance from the base of the falls. There were several logs turned into rest stop on the way back up and I took advantage of one. It was a Zen place to stop and appreciate the forest anyway.