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Stevens Canyon Waterfalls

 

Featured In: Day Hiking: Mount Rainier National Park Trails, by Dan A. Nelson and Alan L. Bauer.
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Following the Wonderland Trail, this route explores the floor of Stevens Canyon, and along the way, you'll find a number of waterfalls along Stevens Creek and its tributaries. The trail is broad and generally well maintained, though the 2006 storms took out some of the bridges and washed out one section of trail.

Find the trail on the south side of the parking area and descend through open forest for about 0.75 mile to reach a bridge over Stevens Creek near the first small waterfall of the journey. Just before crossing the bridge, you'll find a junction with the Wonderland Trail. Turn right and start up the gentle climb along the floor of the canyon. Lush, moss-laden forests surround you on this lower section of the canyon.

At 1.5 miles, you reach Maple Creek Camp alongside the small tributary stream (yup, you guessed it: Maple Creek). A small waterfall crashes over a rocky ledge just above camp--a small boot track leads through the brushy forest to the cascade.

The Wonderland Trail continues upcanyon from Maple Creek, and at around 2.5 miles, you pass a vantage point offering good views of Sylvia Falls on Stevens Creek. Just 1 mile above this, the trail angles steeply away from the main creek to cross Unicorn Creek just below Martha Falls. Stop and enjoy this largest of the route's falls before turning back the way you came.
Driving Directions:

From Enumclaw, drive east about 47 miles on State Route 410 to the junction with SR 123 at Cayuse Pass. Stay right (straight ahead) to merge onto SR 123-Cayuse Pass Highway. Drive south about 11.5 miles to the junction with the Stevens Canyon Road. Turn right (west) and pass through the Stevens Canyon Entrance to the park. About 10.5 miles from SR 123, park in the Box Canyon Picnic Area (about 0.5 mile west of Box Canyon).
From the south, drive US 12 about 8 miles east of Packwood to the junction with SR 123. Turn north on SR 123 and continue about 6 miles, passing Ohanapecosh Campground, to the Stevens Canyon Road. Turn left (west) and pass through the Stevens Canyon Entrance to the park and find the trailhead as described above.
From the west, via Paradise, drive SR 706 through the Nisqually Entrance and continue approximately 23 miles east to the trailhead on the south side of Stevens Canyon Road.
Note: Both SR 123 and Stevens Canyon Road have had closures due to washouts in the November 2006 flood. Although SR 123 has reopened, call ahead for current road conditions.

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Note: the description and driving directions for this Mountaineers Books entry are copyrighted and can't be changed.

Recent Trip Reports

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There are 3 trip reports for this hike.
Stevens Canyon segment of Wonderland Trail — Jul 14, 2010 — EckartS
Day hike
Issues: Mud/Rockslide
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The easiest place to park and enter this segment of the Wonderland Trail is between the lower tunnel and the...
The easiest place to park and enter this segment of the Wonderland Trail is between the lower tunnel and the Box Canyon picnic site. The trail descends 500 ft. and crosses Stevens Creek at a narrow canyon (not quite as deep as Box Canyon) on a sturdy bridge at 1.1 mi. At 2.2 mi. is the Maple Creek designated campsite. This section of the Wonderland Trail is not described in positive terms in the 50 Hikes in Mt. Rainier National Park hiking guide book, but we found it to be a delightful trail and contrary to what we expected after reading the book, we hardly heard any noise from the vehicles on the Stevens Canyon road above. As a matter of fact, there are only few places where you can even see the road. It is an impressive view to see from below how the road has been glued to the steep hillside in the area of the upper tunnel. Most of the trail is in the shade and on the north side of the Tatoosh Range, so this is a good trail for a hot day. Scenic points are Sylvia Falls (cannot quite see all of it from the trail) and Martha Falls. The trail is in good shape, except a critical point is a slide area where the trail has to be carved anew from the slide slope every spring and where many rocks hang lose above the trail, waiting to come rolling down. A short section of the trail is in the flood plain of Stevens Creek. The old bridge across Unicorn Creek is gone and the trail has been rerouted to a log crossing further upstream, immediately below one of the Martha Falls.
A good destination for this hike is Louise Lake, a short mile after crossing the Stevens Canyon road. The shoreline of Louise Lake is very fragile and could use some resource management with stepping stones and a sitting log to allow the wildflowers (marshmarigold) to flourish untrampled and to concentrate the hiker damage in one spot. We saw only one other hiking party on this trail.

Elev. gain 2130 ft. in, 590 ft. on return trip. 13 mi. R.T. Allow 7 hours R.T.
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Stevens Canyon Waterfalls — Jun 27, 2010 — MachoMtMatt
Day hike
Features: Wildflowers blooming
Issues: Mud/Rockslide | Water on trail | Snow on trail
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I actually hiked from Longmire past the Reflection Lakes into the Stevens canyon, but I'm focusing on Stevens Canyon in...
I actually hiked from Longmire past the Reflection Lakes into the Stevens canyon, but I'm focusing on Stevens Canyon in this report. I wrote about Longmire to Reflection lakes in another report.
From Reflection lake, I tried to follow the Wonderland trail through the snow between it and Louise lake, but found it very difficult, especially when you reach the crossing of Sunbeam creek. Could not find the actual bridge across, so rather than risk falling through, I hiked straight up the hill (steep! I had snow shoes on) and followed the road until it reached the bend that causes Louise lake to be out of view.
I met back up with the trail there and found it patchy snow. Caution: the snow is weighing down some of the large bushes on the side of the trail and I almost lost my ability to have more children when one sprang out of the snow!!! Hiking down, I found many Avalanche lilies blooming along the sides of the trail.
I crossed the road for the last time and headed toward Martha and Sylvia falls. The sign by the road warned of rough trail ahead. It is referring to a landslide that wiped out a portion of the trail after Martha falls and just before Sylvia falls. I ended up turning around at the landslide, but that is not to say it isn't passable. The trail crews have done a remarkable job at ensuring this section is still passable and you can hike right through the landslide. Caution is still advised though, as at one spot you could see that there was still plenty of water in the hill side.
At Martha falls, where I ended up having lunch, was one of the nicest falls I've seen. The original bridge had been washed out, but trail crews had installed a new, more primitive log bridge a little closer to the falls. There isn't yet a rail for the bridge; just wire so be careful. After that, I headed back up to the lakes to continue back to Longmire where I then went up Rampart ridge to make a 22 mile day hike.
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Narada Falls, Mazama Ridge, Stevens Canyon — Feb 24, 2008 — WildCelticRose
Day hike
Issues: Snow on trail
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Today was another amazing day on Tahoma (aka Mt Rainier) for myself, Don, Kay and Lesley The forecast was for light...

Today was another amazing day on Tahoma (aka Mt Rainier) for myself, Don, Kay and Lesley

The forecast was for light snow in the morning and clouds in the afternoon.

It wasn’t going to storm heavily, we’d already had some amazing days, so we were happy just be up there in gentle conditions (between making her own weather, avalanches, floods/lahars, and just blowing her top, [she is after all an active volcano] any trip we come back alive from is a good one.)

The lady Tahoma gave us a very light “peek” and then she was gone.

We parked at Narada Falls and slogged up the Paradise River to the junction with the unplowed road.

The view from the avalanche slope above Narada falls was awesome as usual

We then backtracked and headed towards the junction with Mazama Ridge.

Of course, Pinnacle was not going to show its self

but the view from Mazama Ridge was spectacular!!!

We continued on, and finally found the group from NWHikers. (I’ll let you guys name everyone in the picture)

It was awesome to finally put some faces to screen names. (including, but not lmited to: Schmidt Altitude, Schmidt Altidude, WAmountain girl, Action Betty, Tazz, and others (if I forgot you, it’s nothing personal, we went out for margaritas after the trip. Mark (who I already know from TNAB, Dicey and Magellan were out skiing so we missed them.

Rumor has it there was (ski) pole dancing and LICKING… sounds like they had a wild night; maybe next time I won’t already be committed to something else and will have stories to tell.

We made the trek across the rest of Mazama Ridge (longer than we thought) around the other side of paradise and then dropped down to Stevens Canyon.

Pinnacle finally showed its self as we were getting ready to drop down to the other side of the ridge.

We had a lovely lunch overlooking Paradise; the camp robbers wasted no time in finding us

And the lady decided to show herself to us

After (fighting for our) lunch, we headed down to the Stevens Canyon Road (unplowed and off camber) and headed back down to Narada Falls

As we headed back down, she put on her hat (lenticular cloud_.

By the time we hit the parking lot at Narada Falls, she had completely shrouded herself in clouds, and we never saw here again.

We got very lucky on the weather and visibility today.

Mileage: 6.24

Elevation gain 1,505 (partially gained and lost several times)

It was an awesome day!!!

We are so lucky to have this as our backyard (OK, days like this are why we don’t off ourselves in the winter)

The rest of the piccies are available here (Lisa’s photobucket album for this trip until her new DNS is resolved)

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/awildcelticrose/Mazama%20Ridge%200208/

~L

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Location
Mt. Rainier -- SW - Cayuse Pass / Steven's Canyon
Longmire Wilderness Information Center
Statistics
Roundtrip 7.0 miles
Elevation Gain 700 ft
Highest Point 3750 ft
Features
Waterfalls
Established campsites
Guidebooks & Maps
Day Hiking: Mt. Rainier National Park Trails (Nelson & Bauer - Mountaineers Books)
Green Trails Mount Rainier East
No. 270; Contact: Longmire Wilderness Information Center
(360) 569-4453

Improve or add to this guidebook entry

Note: the description and driving directions for this Mountaineers Books entry are copyrighted and can't be changed.

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Red Marker Stevens Canyon Waterfalls
46.7601666667 -121.639066667
(46.7602, -121.6391) Open in new window
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