Trip Reports

I checked the trail from the west trailhead (off of I-90 Exit 34) to the Twin Falls bridge for storm damage after yesterday’s wind storm. Three small blow down trees crossed the trail and there were lot of small branches everywhere. I was able to remove all three trees, so the trail is now clear (at least up to the bridge).

Rick Oakley
Park Ranger
Olallie State Park and Twin Falls Natural Area

This a nice hike with nice reward. One problem though. This was listed under the websites "Hikes with young children" section. Our 3-1/2 y.o. made it to the bridge, but some of the elevation gain can be rough on the little ones, and many of the hilly parts of the trail have pretty serious drop-offs w/o gaurd rails, a little unnerving with an energetic toddler who wants to look at everything, everywhere, all the time. Beautiful scenery otherwise, and the falls are great. Distance markers would be nice too, especially with the little ones.

The trail is short and easy for an adult, but there's a small up/down section leading to the waterfall that can be a bit hard for little kids, though I saw plenty of children running up and down. Got there at 11AM, the parking lot still had a few spots. When I left at 2PM, the parking had spilled out of the lot and there were at least twice as many parked cars, so come early (it opens at 8AM) if you don't want to see people everywhere. The waterfall is absolutely stunning!

Nice hike, beautiful waterfalls. Very crowded, lots of dogs, kids. The large old growth tress are amazing and the 107 stairs to the overhanging lookout are worth it! I was surprised that a hike that is listed as easy for kids in the guidebooks had so many ups and downs. My 4 year old was very tired by the end. Overall, a very good day!

We arrived around 10:00 AM the main parking area was already full and only a handful had started spilling out on the side of the road.

On the way in we say a few people but the trail was fairly clear. Only a few had stopped at the first overlook. Also there were more then a few people with dogs off the leash and running "wild". If you bring an animal on a hike please keep it under control. On the way back we could tell it was starting to get crowded as we had to wait in several spots for groups of 8+ to pass.

Overall the trail is in good condition. There are a couple spots where water has pooled slightly and the ground is starting to get a little mucky. The switchbacks seemed in good shape as well.

The trail is wet and muddy in a few places but overall a great hike, no snow, and it's early in the season since it was a monday we had no trouble finding any parking. If you come make sure you wear boots and gators.

We started the trail pretty late....4pm-ish. Most of the trekkers were coming back but there were few who started with us as well. Parking was full but we squeezed in one of openings. The trail starts with a water flowing along with the trail for half a mile. The trail did have of water on its way (muddy patches). There were many families with kids along the way. The trail was very green and sunny. half thw ay to the hike, you get a sneek peek of the waterfall. There are 2 different views of the fall on the trek. At the end of the trek, there's a small bridge with water on both the sides. Right before that bridge, there were stairs that lead down to the view of the bottom falls. Both are worth watching. Beautiful trek. Loved it.

We arrived at the trailhead about 9:30 am where there were a dozen or so other cars and started hiking with two kids. The trail was in excellent hard packed shape, but a bit muddy with some water crossing it flowing toward river. We hiked in relative peace (except for our kids of course) until the Falls View Outlook area with the two benches. There we started to pass people and dogs who were coming back. After an hour and a half to reach upper falls, we ate lunch and then started back down, passing more and more people on the way. Arriving back at the trailhead at 12:30 the parking area was FULL.

First nice saturday in a while so we decided to take the dogs for a walk. We started at about 11:30 AM. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had this idea. The place was a zoo. There were about twenty cars in the parking lot when we got there and probably 50% more when we left. We were either behind or ahead of someone the whole time. Despite the constant parade of other people and dogs the walk was decent. We didn't run into any rude people or agressive animals. Everyone was very nice. The trail was in good shape too. The crowd actually did thin out past the lower falls and then realy thinned out between the upper falls and iron horse. We ate some lunch at the Iron horse juction and watched some mountain biker taking advantage of the weather. The Falls were spectacular and the trail was in good shape. The weather was beautiful all day too, so all in all a good trip.

First beautiful day we have had in seattle in awhile, about 6-12 inches of snow on the ground in spots, but once to the trail not so much snow. The hike was so beautiful, the waterfalls were massive a gorgoes. I recomend this hike, especially if you are ansey to get outside. The snow is not to intense, make sure you where water proof boots though.