On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
PaulB
The Balloon-Juice folks have journeyed with me as I traversed the best that Washington state has to offer, with prior submissions from visits to Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, and, two years ago, to the Olympic Peninsula and the Olympic National Park. Beginning today, I’d like to invite you to join me as I embark on “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop.
As far as I can tell, the Cascade Loop is mostly a marketing thing, created to encourage people to take just these kinds of road trips (the western part of the Loop isn’t even in the Cascades). The Loop is now a National Scenic Byway, as well as a Washington State Scenic and Recreational Highway, a 440-mile trip, not counting side trips. There is a map at the link above, if you’re curious about the specific locations on the loop. Roughly speaking, the loop begins in the southwest corner in Mukilteo, heads east from there to Wenatchee, north to Winthrop, west to Anacortes, then south through Whidbey Island, and the Whidbey Island Ferry, back to Mukilteo.
I skipped the Mukilteo section of the Loop, since I’ve been there, done that, so my trip really began just west of Snohomish. This first day of the trip consisted of just two locations: Wallace Falls State Park and Bridal Veil Falls. Both of these consisted of moderate-difficulty 4.5 mile roundtrip hikes.
Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have done both of them in one day, given my age and general physical condition. I got fooled by the brochure, which insisted that the trail to Bridal Veil Falls, the second hike, was an “easy half-mile hike.” What they neglected to mention, and what I failed to notice, is that the so-called easy hike was a spur off of a 1.8 mile moderate difficulty trail (3.5 miles round trip), and that a portion of the trail had been damaged by a rock slide. By the time I realized all of this, I was pretty well committed, as well as being stubborn, so I stuck it out.
One thing I noticed on both hikes was that a substantial number of my fellow hikers had brought their dogs along on the hike. For the most part, they were well-behaved when I met them, and it brought a smile to my face on more than one occasion seeing their excitement as they wandered back and forth, sniffing everything they could find.
All of these pictures were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra phone, with the only post-processing some minor clipping, plus shrinking the pictures so that they would more easily fit on the BJ website. You can see full-size versions of today’s photos here.
The first five photos in today’s entry are of the Wallace River. The river has a Lower Falls, a Middle Falls, and an Upper Falls. This is a picture of the Wallace River cascading over the rocks.
This is what the brochure claimed was called the Small Falls, a creek cascading into the Wallace River. This was an easy hike, just a short distance from the parking area.
This is a picture of the Lower Falls in the foreground, with the Middle Falls visible in the top center of the photo. The horizontal distance between the Lower and Middle Falls wasn’t bad, less than half a mile, but the vertical distance was pretty daunting.
This is a picture of the Middle Falls, a 265-foot waterfall. The mist was everywhere, as you can see from the next photo in this series. No rainbow, alas, as the light wasn’t in the proper direction.
These next five pictures were taken along the trail to Bridal Veil Falls, plus, of course, the Falls themselves. The Falls drop a total of 1328 feet in four sections, although all I’m going to show is the upper section. This first photo is a view of the Cascade Mountains to the north, taken along the trail to Bridal Veil.
This is a picture of a portion of the trail that was damaged by the rock slide. You can still make out the trail, so there was no danger of getting lost, but the footing was tricky, and made even more so by some snow runoff that was still underway. You had to be very careful where you put your feet, as I found out the hard way. Thankfully, all that happened to me was a scraped elbow, a scratched phone case, and some minor bruises. One thing that helped me was that my foot slipped out of my shoe. Had that not happened, given where the shoe got wedged, I could easily have sprained an ankle.
A picture of Bridal Veil Falls. I wanted a picture without the trees in the way, but that would have meant wading out into very cold, very fast-moving water, with another segment of the falls immediately behind me. I had no intention of qualifying for a Darwin Award, so you’ll have to settle for this. One thing that isn’t visible in the picture is that there was a lot of water droplets in the air. It helped to keep things cool, but it meant that I had to dry my camera lens after every picture and I had to take pictures very quickly.
A view in the other direction, looking away from the falls.
A view from a little lower down. Exhausted, dehydrated, filthy, and a little bit bloody, I hiked a little over two miles back to the parking area. A short time later, I was relaxing in Leavenworth, which will be the subject of the next set of photos
JPL
Wonderful pictures. It’s summertime in the South and I find the waterfall pictures refreshing. Thanks for sharing.
CindyH
That is quite a rockslide coverage – beautiful pictures of the falls!
Sid
Nice photos, nice trip. My wife and I have done a lot of backcamping in the national parks up there- Olympic, Mt Ranier, North Cascades- as well as the Mt. Baker Wilderness. The National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have plans to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascade ecosytem: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/grizzly-bears-will-finally-return-to-washington-state-humans-arent-sure-how/
We happened to be backcountry hiking & camping in Custer State Park (South Dakota) about 10 years ago when I mentioned to her how dogs (and tattoos) seemed to be required of anyone under 30. Personally, I don’t think dogs belong in that environment for various reasons, including infectious disease (a two way street), their freaking out wildlife (as well as their predatory instincts), and sometimes just general bad behavior. By the way, that’s the opinion of someone who’s had dogs in the home since childhood.
Kristine
Lovely photos. Imagining cool temperatures to go along with them.
J.
Wow! So beautiful!
PaulB
Thank you. It’s funny you mention the temperature, since it was unseasonably warm for mid-May, with temperatures in the mid to upper 80s for this portion of the trip. The mist at both locations was definitely welcome.
cope
Beautiful pictures of wonderful places, thank you.
Hoodie
Years back, a friend and I used to make a near annual pilgrimage to the North Cascades to do the loop hike from Hwy 20 through Stehekin and back. Enjoyed it because of the ability to experience alpine terrain without the altitudes you typically have to endure to see similar terrain in Colorado and Wyoming. Stopped for the bakery in Stehekin mid-trip, and finished up with steak and fruit pie at the Windmill Restaurant in Wenatchee (seems like it’s still around). Next month doing the mega road trip thing on the Great Bear Loop in BC (Vancouver – Port Hardy – Bella Coola – Chilcotin – Vancouver).
Xavier
Last fall on a trip to visit children in Seattle, we drove WA Hwy 20 pretty much end to end. All highly recommended.
OzarkHillbilly
Thanx.
StringOnAStick
You can hear the sound of the cascading water looking at these photos! Looking forward to your travel guide to Leavenworth since that’s on this summer’s itinerary once my injuries are healed up.
beckya57
I’ve done both those hikes. Both Wallace and BV Falls are gorgeous, but he’s not kidding about the footing on the BV trail. I did that one about a month ago on a rainy day, and those rocks sure were slippery! Trail isn’t very long, but harder than generally advertised. Snoquera Falls (off of Hwy 410 on the way to Mt Rainier) is very similar. Did that one in 2021, right after the reopenings but when we still were masking outdoors, drizzly day, couldn’t see a darn thing because my glasses kept fogging from the mask. Fell 3 times, still my personal record for falls on a hike (and I’ve done many on much longer trails since). If you’re going on a falls hike in the NW, wear grippy shoes and bring your poles!
stinger
What a lovely set of photos! I can hear the rushing of the water and feel the cool mist on my face!
JustRuss
I rode Hwy 20 on my motorcycle a couple Memorial Days ago, it’s a beautiful route. I understand the day they open it after the snow clears is kind of a big deal, I may try to be there next year.
BigJimSlade
Beautiful area – and you were bleeding for us! This is a full-service blog!
Chris T.
@StringOnAStick:
“Ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth.” But that’s a different Leavenworth.
I haven’t been yet, but it seems that it’s traditional to hit up Leavenworth in winter….