Marten Lake, Big Creek Falls & Taylor River - Otter Falls — Friday, Apr. 4, 2025

My first time going this far into the Middle Fork Snoqualmie hiking area and I’m looking forward to returning. There’s so much to choose from out there! I settled on trying to reach Marten Lake and then continuing on as far as I had time for along the Snoqualmie Lake Trail. In addition to the basics, I brought water shoes for potential tough water crossings, a change of clothes in case I got too wet, hiking poles, and crampons and traction cleats for potential snow and ice conditions. The only thing I ended up using was my spare socks when I stepped through snow into water near the lake and flooded both hiking boots. Consistent snow only appeared in the last third (about half mile) of the Marten Lake Trail, towards the end of the open brush area before returning into the trees. The unmaintained trail was easy to follow until that point. I initially followed bootprints in the snow and was excited when I saw a pink tape marker, but then the prints were heading off and down to the right when I read hikers are meant to stay left. So I used a downloaded maps app to make my way left in search of the original trail, which was quickly found. Some fun scrambling up rocks and roots. When the trail disappeared into snow, I only had my app to trust as there were no other prints to follow…just pristine snow. But my dog and I had some fun in the snow around the lake, if you call my postholing one leg up to my bum and having to dig that leg out fun. With the deep snow around the lake, it’s hard to identify the real access point. I just chose a line and tried to commit. So if you’re a snowshoer, you may have a much easier time with lots of access point options. The lake was beautiful and so quiet. On the return back to the main trail, it was easier to climb down backwards on some of the steeper portions of the trail. The hike next to Marten Creek is nice with the sounds of the running water and some peekaboo views of its own waterfalls. Once on the main Snoqualmie Lake Trail, my pup and I headed off to check out Otter Falls with Lipsy Lake at its base and then Big Creek Falls, making that our turnaround point. At Lipsy the sun was shining enough that I could see vegetation growing under the water. And Big Creek was impressive! I’m absolutely shocked that through this entire hike I only saw two other hikers at Marten Creek. At 11:15 am my car became the 7th in the parking lot, and at 6 pm it only had one other vehicle, a new one, as its companion. Stats: 12.9 miles, 2325 ft total elevation gain. All water crossings were low enough to have exposed rocks to step on today.