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| Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site, WA | |
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| | Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site, WA | | | |
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Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site, WA
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| Hiking | 1.00 Miles |
127 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.00 Miles | | | |
| 127 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Couldn't be in Washington State without visiting the Official State Waterfall. The goal was to get there pretty early, because the reputation was that this Park gets heavy use and fills up very early and quickly with a very small parking lot. And it was a Saturday. It turned out to be surprising. Apparently no one in Washington travels the weekend before a Holiday weekend. After a short, pretty scenic drive, I was the first vehicle in the parking lot at 5:45 a.m. And after dinking around for about 3 hours or so, there were still only a few cars in the lot when I was ready to leave.
I was greeted by a large Marmot upon arrival and it was clear shortly after, that Marmots were plentiful here, they were everywhere. The sun was coming up right behind the Falls making it difficult to photograph early on, so after a bit, walked the loop. Thanks to people with a scant supply of brain cells, you can no longer hike to the bottom of either the big falls or the smaller falls upstream anymore and some of the viewpoints are now fenced off from the edge. So the "hike" was pretty short. Three guys, who appeared to be locals, broke the rules and were headed for the bottom to fish. Spotted them halfway down the cliff face on the now closed trail. Whatever.
It was a pretty hike along the river and I could see where if you trip, you could fall a long way. A bit of exposure there, especially along a narrow gorge area between the upper and lower falls. Actually got startled by a marmot on the far side of the loop. Spent a little time above the big pool and actually kinda dangled the camera over the edge for better shots. 
After one more visit to the main viewpoints, it was time to head to the barn. Took my time and the backroads almost all the way back just for the hell of it. Finally intersected I-90 just south of Wenatchee and then did one more touristy stop with a quickie hike before getting back to the ranch. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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