Taylor River - Otter Falls — Friday, Mar. 19, 1999

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

After a January move to our new home and finially settling in, my wife and I were busting at the seams to get outdoors. WOW promised a perfect Saturday and we decided to drive the Middle Fork to Taylor River and our favorite early spring destination, Otter Falls. The Middle Fork road is free of snow all the way to Taylor River. That section of the road in the national forest is in poor shape but passable. We left the trail head at 10:00am wondering if we would meet the hikers of the two cars that proceeded us. That's the neat thing about Taylor River is all the various destinations. In 1997 we hiked to Otter Falls the first week of April. Considering we hiked two weeks earlier this year, I would say the snow levels are fairly comparable. The snow starts quickly and grows from a few inches to three feet by Marten Creek and three to four feet by the outlet to Lipsy Lake. One hundred yards past the outlet we turned toward the falls and arrived at the campsite above the SE corner of the lake. Just below the campsite we saw a deer skull placed as a marker on a tree branch. The falls and lake were beautiful. The lake is 3/4 frozen and a lot of water was coming down the falls. The snow was unbroken giving us the feeling we were the first hikers to visit this year. After a long lunch the skies began to get hazy and we decided to head back. We never did meet the two other hikers. One probably went to Big Creek and the other made tracks to Marten Lake. We finially made it back to our car by 6:00pm. My wife used her snow shoes and was quicker then I was without having them. The snow is still soft in spots, especially past Marten Creek. It should get harder in the next week or so. All the streams were passable and there are no major obstacles on the trail. We crossed a snow bridge over the outlet to Lipsy Lake, I don't think it will last much longer.