My advice: make sure you read the directions and other trip reports before you head out! The trail is a little hidden, but totally worth it. For a hike that's literally just off I-90, you really feel like you're out of the city.
 
I headed out late in the day for this short hike. The directions tell you the parking area is .25 miles off exit 38. it's really closer to 2 miles. Just follow the road under I-90 again until it ends and park outside the gate (it was locked & closed today anyway). You'll need a Discover Pass. I think when the gate is open you can park closer to the trailhead if you have a Northwest Forest pass.

The trail head is past the gate about .5 miles. Don't get fooled by the dirt road on the left after you cross the bridge. Go past it and the trailhead is on the right just before mile marker 798. The hike was a gentle slope on a rocky old railroad grade, but it was wet and rocky. I didn't need them on the way up, but on the way down, I was glad I had poles and hiking shoes / boots.

The trail is pretty with waterfalls, a rustic bridge and a creek that runs alongside it for awhile. Plus, it's quiet. I only passed two other parties coming down as I was headed up. I got to the rusty old can quickly and kept heading up. After going another .75 miles past the rusty can on the main trail, the sky opened up and started raining and the trail turned into a mini-river. I turned around, but did snag some great views. On my way down, I discovered what I would have known if I had read the other trip reports. To the right of the rusty can is the trail to Dirty Harry's balcony. Awesome views and glad I found it. I only stayed for about 10 minutes at the top since it was getting dark. Jogged down the trail. My poles helped make the trip down faster. I ended up finding my car was the only one left in the parking lot.

Nice easy hike that's a must-see if you're looking for something off the I-90 corridor that's less popular than Little Si or Rattlesnake.

Short, pleasant hike to a very nice view. Plenty of potential for ankle twisting due to rocky trail which at times was also a creek bed. After enjoying the view & flowers (see photo), we returned to the main trail and continued uphill, past some nice views across the valley of the John Wayne trail trestle bridge, until reaching a fast-moving, boot-soaker creek. I didn't want to carry our 25 lb. dog across, so we turned back. Passed a hiker who was coming down and said that there was snow not too far beyond the creek.

Once we found the trailhead and the turnoff onto the logging road converted to trail (see Ancheta86 trip report for details--wish we'd read that first), we slowly worked our way to the balcony, still getting in shape after an idle winter.

The trail was a shallow stream in some places, only a problem if you are wearing shoes that can't get wet on the bottom (which you shouldn't be, given the rocks on the trail).

Nice trillium and yellow violets blooming along the way.

Beautiful view from the balcony on this clear, warm day.

Since we couldn't start until about 1 p.m., we wanted a hike of about the same difficulty and view reward as Rattlesnake Ledge. This was a good one to choose. By contrast with the huge crowd at Rattlesnake Ledge a few weeks ago, we met a dozen or so other hikers along the way today. Could have been Mother's Day keeping people in the city, the fact that it's a bit further up the road, or that there's no lake to attract people.

As mentioned in previous trip reports, the |Discovery Pass| is needed to park at the base of this hike.

From the parking lot, the trailhead was just up the paved access road about 0.5 mile on the right. The trailhead was not that well marked, but had two large concrete blocks at the base of it and a small marker, which was sort of tucked away from the road.

The trail starts off relatively narrow for an old road and is not too well maintained so watch your step! Further up, the trail did have water flowing/pooling on it, which wasn't a big deal and kept the air cool on this nice warm/sunny day.

After about 1.5 miles (~40 minutes) of hiking and the trail becoming something which started to resemble an old road, we found the rusty old milk can. Just another quarter mile or so to the right of the can and we emerged onto the balcony. It was not too windy this day and had a great view!

After stopping at the balcony for about 20 minutes to refuel and enjoy the views we headed back down. The descent only took about 25 minutes.

Over all, this was a great hike and didn't have the crowds that you might find at nearby peaks. The terrain was very manageable, it was just important to watch your step as some of the trail was rocky and wet.