Update: This hike is dangerous. Make sure to use caution if you do this hike.
We hiked to this beautiful waterfall called Palouse Falls. The falls are about an hours drive northeast of Pasco, out in the middle of nowhere. The hike offers great views of large cliffs and the river canyon below.
When we first arrived at Palouse Falls State Park, you can see the waterfall from the parking lot. At first glance, the hike seemed like it wouldn’t take more than 45 minutes to an hour; however, we learned shortly after arriving that it was going to be a little longer of a hike. Here’s a map for reference:
As you can see, the trail has you go back behind the falls and all the way over to a railroad track. You go down a steep hill by the tracks and follow along the river there. Along that part of the hike there are rapids and some pretty cool looking cliffs.
After you get through that part of the hike, you get to the point of the waterfall. Here you are actually looking right over the edge of where the water falls. It’s a long ways down and was a very cool place to peer over the edge and be humbled. Some people turn back at this point of the hike but we wanted to get to the bottom.
The next part of the hike has you walking along the edge of the canyon. There’s a large cliff wall to your side and a sheer drop off the other side.
At one point, you start heading down into the lowest part of the canyon. There is a lot of loose rock. Some nice hiker tied a rope to a tree that we were able to hold onto as we descended.Once at the bottom, the mist from the falls starts to hit your face and you get a greater perspective for how massive the falls truly are. We took photos by the falls and relaxed there for a while. The cool mist felt great as we had been hiking in the middle of a hot day.
After cooling down, we made the journey back to the car.
Going up was much quicker and easier than going down.