I recently had to opportunity to hike the Wallace Falls trail for the first time and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. This is one of those trails that offers a lot in a short amount of distance because it just seemed like there were views around every couple of corners.
For those who are interested in doing the hike, going early is a definite recommendation. I arrived at the trailhead at 8 am and there were about 20 cars in the parking lot. As I hiked, I saw many people on the trail and by the time that I was finished, a good portion of the parking lot was filled. I did this hike on New Year's Eve, which is something that not as many people are going to do. I can only imagine that on a nice summer day, parking is going to be taken up fast. There is no roadside parking on the way to the trailhead so you'll have to find parking elsewhere in the surrounding residential area. Parking in the lot also costs $10 a day or $30 a year for the Discover Pass, which will allow you to park at various other state parks. Those who do not pay for parking may be fined at this location as there is a volunteer actively on site.
For those who are also new to this trail, there are multiple sites and waterfalls that you can hike to. On this day, I only hiked to lower falls so take that into consideration as you read this blog. That being said, the hike to lower falls is relatively easy. A more experienced hiker or someone with good cardiovascular endurance should have little problem. I would like to note that there was a little girl less than 5 years old that I saw throughout the trail walking on her own. That kind of tells you about the difficulty of this hike. To me, it seemed like there was not a lot of elevation gain. More so smaller patches of incline climbs rather than a constant climb.
You start off at the trailhead and walk down a gravel road that’s directly under those electrical towers that you often see randomly running through the mountains. This was actually my first time being this close to those towers and to my surprise, you can actually hear the electricity running through them, which is kind of crazy! After this, you enter the rain forrest and stay there for the remainder of the hike.
One nice thing about this hike is that you walk along a moving body of water for a good portion of the hike or relatively close. You can hear moving water for the entirety of the hike and that just adds to the mood of the trip.
Conditions on this particular day were great. It had been raining consistently for the past couple of weeks and this was an unusually good weather day. I was layered up pretty well and stayed warm throughout the hike but my hiking partner did complain about being cold and losing sensation when not in motion. Keep that in mind as you plan your trip! Another thing that would be helpful is to bring a waterproof layer because there were a lot of water droplets falling from the trees even on a nice sunny day. If you're going on a wet day, bring waterproof gear for sure.
I can’t gaurantee that this is the norm for this trail but I experienced some amazing light throughout this hike. As the sun rose, it lit the tree canopy on fire and often put on a display of light beams through the trees. This got me pretty excited and I tried my best to capture an image as it was happening.
Overall, this is definitely a recommended hike. There is a lot of reward for the amount of effort put in, even if you don't do the entire hike.
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