Bridal Veil Falls, Alpine Falls, Deception Falls, and Drury Falls on US 2

Commuting back between Lynnwood and Leavenworth this summer was not easy, but I loved being able to see waterfalls while driving along US 2 and hiking to them when I had the time. The first falls you encounter on your way east is Wallace Falls - a stunning waterfall that has already been given its own post.

Though you'll get much better views if you take the 5.5 mile hike, you can still get a pretty decent view from US 2 if you know where you look.

About 8 miles later you'll see Bridal Veil Falls. The shot above shows the falls tumbling down Mt Index in multiple strands. It was taken from US 2, and I actually prefer the view from here to the view from the hike since you can see all the different threads of water. I wouldn't advise looking for it when you're traveling east since you can only see it in your rearview mirror or by looking directly behind you. But this view is very easily seen when you're traveling west.

It's about 4.5 miles roundtrip to hike to the falls, and there were several pretty views of the valley before I got there.

In this pic you can see US 2 on the far left.

The falls were beautiful when I made it there, and I was surprised that my "Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest" book only gave them a 2 out of 5 star rating.

It's easily understood why it's called "bridal veil" by the pretty way the water drops off the mountain. The pool created by the falls isn't particularly deep and technically you could cross it if you were willing to get your feet wet, but I wouldn't advise it. There's another trail that will take you up to Lake Serene - the lake that feeds the falls, but I didn't have time for an additional 3 miles.

It was cool to get this up close and personal to the waterfall, but I was dissapointed at only being able to see two threads. I prefered the view from the highway.

The next falls along the highway is called Alpine Falls.

Unfortunately the viewpoint only takes you to the top of the falls, which isn't terribly picturesque. But you could at least see from here how powerful the waterfall was crashing.

I scrambled down the hill to try and get a better shot.

But this was the best I could do since I wasn't willing to go out into the water and get my shoes soaking wet.

The next waterfall, Deception Falls, has its own little park to walk through. Again I was floored that my book only gave it a 2 star rating. It was powerful and beautiful. This is the upper viewpoint of the falls.

And this is a shot of lower falls taken from the bridge above.

This shot of lower falls is taken from a bit further back.

We tried taking the trail around the falls, but we weren't up to crossing these wet rocks when the water was flowing so rapidly.

We even tried going around the loop in the other direction, but the entire trail was soaked!

We came back a few weeks later to finish the hike.

The water was still strong, but not quite as intense as it was earlier.

We liked this funky tree stump.

There were several moderate falls and rapids to see as we hiked around.

This is an area where you can see that the river actually changed its course in response to a landslide.

The next viewpoint held a fairly decent and powerful cascade, but it was difficult to get a great picture.

We ended up braving the wet rocks this time since the water wasn't nearly as intense Our shoes still got soaked, but at least we didn't have to hike all the way back around the way we'd come.

I like this cute pic of me with lower falls in the background.

And the last falls you see (if you're looking for it) before entering Leavenworth is Drury Falls. It's quite a waterfall, but since the view is very distant, I actually understood why it only has a two star rating. It's all the way up the mountain about 6 miles north of Leavenworth and is extremely easy to miss if you're not trying to find it. This was the best shot we could get from the highway.

My frind Gary, however, was able to get a fantastic shot of it with his camera. It's much less blurry than ours even though it's zoomed in much further. One of these days we'll get a fancy camera that can take shots like this one!

Iron Goat Loop Trail

A couple of weeks ago on my way home from Leavenworth I decided to hike the Mountain Goat Loop - a former rail line that's been converted into a pretty hiking trail.

Several snow sheds were built to protect the trains from snow melt during the Spring.

Some were safe enough to go into, while others were far too dangerous. I actually began my hike behind a large group going into the snow sheds wearing hard hats, but I passed them quickly since they lingered in the tunnels much longer than I did.

There was a lot of beautiful foliage to see.

These large leaves reminded me of being in Hawaii.

Fortunately the path is mostly paved and easy to follow, but it seemed longer than the 5.7 miles it claimed to be.

I could see a couple of waterfalls, but they were too difficult to view from the surrounding trees.

These two were a bit easier to see, but they're more of what I call "vertical streams," rather than waterfalls.

This little tunnel feels nice and cool when you get close to it.

This snowshed was open, but you couldn't enter in more than a few feet.

There were some nice views of Steven's Pass as I climbed up to the upper loop.

Quite a bit of water was dripping down the snow sheds on the upper loop portion of the hike.

I hiked up to an overlook with these two vertical streams.

And found a few more tunnels

Along with this hole in the wall.

I saw an extremely large tunnel as I was finishing the upper loop.

But I continued for a 1/4 mile off the loop hike to go see Windy Point.

The views of Steven's Pass and Surprise Creek Valley were beautiful.

I could see a pretty impressive waterfall in the distance, but I can't seem to find its name if it has one. Surprise Creek Falls?

Hiking near Leavenworth

One wonderful thing about living in Leavenworth for the summer was the opportunity to do a lot of hiking. Here in Lynnwood I have to drive at least an hour to get to any real hiking opportunities, so it was nice to be surrounded by many nearby hiking trails.

The closest hike to Leavenworth is the Tumwater Pipeline trail which follows the Icicle river along an abandoned pipeline.

It's very easy to miss (I passed it twice before I saw the turnoff), but you'll know you're there when you see the big iron bridge. I could actually see it from another hike I took up the mountains, which at least confirmed to me that there really was a way to cross the river.

The views of the river are very pretty from the bridge and the trail.

But don't get in it! It's very strong. Two teenagers drowned recently from attempting to swim in it.

Further up the river are two trails called the "Icicle Gorge Trail" and the "Icicle Gorge View Trail." Both are loop trails, and the Icicle Gorge View trail takes the bottom section of its loop from the top section of the Gorge trail loop.

There was a small waterfall from the bridge I crossed to start taking the loop clockwise.

It was quite intense! A local hiker told me it's typically clear enough by this time of year to see the fish. But additional snow this year has kept it churning.

Here were a couple of small waterfalls I could see across the river, but they were blocked a bit by the trees.

There was a lookout rock that I stood on to take pictures of the pretty gorge.

A few years ago this trail was extremely popular and very crowded, but a landslide actually diverted the river so it now flows through what used to be the road.

You can't drive to the trail head anymore, but you can still walk to it if you're willing to add an extra four miles round trip to an already 4.5 mile hike.

This was actually the first hike I wanted to do, but the road was closed 8 miles further back the first time I tried to get there. I hadn't realized it was still accessible until the lady I was staying with told me about it a few weeks later. It was apparently closed those additional miles for a separate landslide in June, but they had that cleared up by the time I came back in late July.

I veered off of my original loop to see the views from the view trail. It's pretty, but there's a ton of brush to walk through.

This is a bridge crossing into a wetlands preserve in Wenatchee where I took a hike after getting an oil change.

The views of the Wenatchee river were pretty, but the phone lines blocked my pictures.

It wasn't the prettiest hike, but I got a few nice shots.

I like the mountain view in this one.

A hiking problem I had was that most of the hikes in Leavenworth are long, and I refuse to hike a long trail alone. 9 miles round trip is where I draw the line, but I also needed shorter hiking options for days when I had early rehearsals. The other "Sound of Music" nuns recommended I take the trail to Hidden Lake in Lake Wenatchee.

It was a nice little trail, but Hidden Lake isn't nearly as pretty as Lake Wenatchee.