I started at lower falls and hiked up to Taitnapum Falls. A few down trees and patches of snow - all passable with two lab sized dogs. Down trees got a little thicker between Upper Falls and Taitnapum Falls. Had the trail mostly to myself. 

If you don’t mind a LONG drive, this is a beautiful trail. It literally feels like someone rolled out the red carpet. Very smooth with gentle ups and downs. We started at the lower falls rec area and stopped for lunch at the upper falls. 
Last fall I hiked this trail through slushy puddles and got soaked inside and out. Today, the trees protected us from most of the rain and there were no puddles so feet stayed dry and warm. 
This trail is good if you love waterfalls, mushrooms and big trees. 

Required Passes: No parking permit required after Sept 15th. A Northwest Forest Pass is still required.

Lewis River is flowing heavily with all of the rain we have had.  All of the falls are roaring. The river is flowing so heavily, it seems to be right at or just above the banks in most areas.

I saw two people at the upper falls and two people at the lower falls.  I did not see a sole on the trail between the two.

Lewis was devoid of hikers on this rainy Friday. The road has a few potholes that should be easily avoidable, making it possible for any car to access the lot. There was a small boulder that had fallen on the road as well, but a forest service employee was in the process of moving it off of the road. We parked at the day use area by the Lower Falls, spent some time enjoying the waterfall, and then made our way up to Copper Creek and Middle Lewis Falls.

We occasionally ran into others on the trail (most of them conglomerated by Lower Lewis Falls) but had the area to ourselves for the most part, especially once we got to Copper and Middle.

Fall colors were spectacular. Larches get a lot of hype, but now that the ones in the alpine are past their peak it's well worth heading down to the Gifford and enjoying the decidious display there. Between the waterfall viewing, fall colors, and lack of crowds, this is a great rainy day hike.

Getting there: it’s about 1.5 hours from Woodland, so just know it’s a journey from the Seattle area! From Cougar it’s 50 mins to 1 hour driving. One small section of gravel and the rest is paved. Most pavement is decent though NF 90 has some potholes. Easy to follow signs! And lots of permit/reservation required warnings as you approach.

Recreation.gov passes: enforced! We camped near Cougar and arrived around 10am on Sunday, beautiful day and the lot was mostly empty. Toilets at trailhead and at the nearby Lewis campground. We noticed that rangers were checking cars as they were coming in by 1p and we noticed them checking parked vehicles around noon. Don’t forget it’s 2 items- the lot reservation and a day use or forest pass or national park pass. We saw someone turned away !!! After that long drive, hopefully they enjoyed eagle cliff park (no reservation needed). Honestly it also looked nice on a hot day.

Trail is easy/moderate and well maintained, worth it to plan out your trip so you can enjoy the water and pretty views. Also, worth it to read WTA Trail description and hike up to the 2nd upper falls viewpoint! Water is crystal clear and I can tell why everyone wants to visit here at some point. We started at the lower Lewis trailhead and hiked up to taidnapam (just passed upper falls) and then back down to lower, stopping at Middle as well. The hike plus hanging out was about 3 hours hiking quickly with stops and some water time and pictures, we would’ve stayed longer but anticipated a long drive home. I think our watches measured ~8 miles.