We'd hiked to Twin Falls before... but we went from the trailhead from Twin Falls State Park.  This time, we hiked from Olalie State Park, and along a part of the Iron Horse Trail, then down to the falls.  It wasn't the funnest thing coming back - it was a pretty steep mile off the Iron Horse Trail down to the falls - but it was fun, anyway.

Type: Out and Back
Distance: 3-ish miles
Elevation Change: 400 feet
Elevation: 1375 to 975 feet (Falls are at 975)

This was my first hike with my new hiking staff... I got it using an REI card we got for our wedding.

It worked well, I thought... I like it.  It has a removable top, with a mount for a camera, so it doubles as a monopod.

The trail starts out from a small parking lot, and quickly runs a quarter mile or so up to the Iron Horse Trail.

It was snowing... but its also spring - a week ago it was 80!  It was odd to see ferns unfurling with snow next to them... but it made for a scenic walk.

The Iron Horse Trail is an old rail road grade.  They pulled up the tracks quite a while ago, and now its a recreational trail for hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing (when there's more snow, of course).  It runs some 50+ miles, from Rattlesnake Lake to somewhere on the other side of the pass.

The view through the falling snow from the Trail was very nice...  We noticed an area above the highway that looked like it had been heavily worked on... possibly a big slide had happened in the past, and this was an attempt to stabilize things... we'd never noticed it from the highway - its probably to steep an angle to see it.

Just as we were heading down the trail to the falls, it started snowing a bit heavier.. it was quite nice!

It wasn't cold, and there wasn't much of a breeze, so the snow just floated down...

The trail was easy to follow... a bit muddy, but not too bad.

We made our way down, and before too long we were nearing the bottom edge of the snow line. 

On a couple of places, trees had fallen over the trail, and not all of them had been cleaned up yet... it didn't present too much of a problem, though. 

We crossed a stream on the trail... but it had been routed into a culvert to cut down on erosion below what used to be the railway.  it let out right below the trail... a barrel was there for some reason.  We thought that was a bit of an odd place to see a barrel.

It was right around that point where the trail started heading down the slope in earnest... My TOPO! map back on my computer said the drop was only 400 feet, but it sure felt like it was more than that!  :-) 

 
Right at the end, steps led you down to the bridge that crosses the river.

This area doesn't get sun very often, and the trees were covered with moss in many places... we were well below the snowline at this point, at about 975 feet, which is about 150 feet or so lower than our house.

The view from the bridge was pretty nice... The camera had difficulty sorting out the light metering... I unfortunately didn't notice it washed out the falls... they were pretty nice!

This was the turn-around when we'd hiked up to the falls from the Twin Falls State Park... and it was our turn-around on this one as well.

 
We could see the top of the lower falls, and the valley below, which ends up being the upper end of the Snoqualmie River Valley... it was a very nice scene.

We had left the little guy with his Auntie, and we were planning on heading to a movie after the hike, and were on a timeline, so we took a last look and hiked back up the trail.

Yeah... it seemed to be to be more than the 400 feet back up to the Iron Horse Trail... :-)  I guess I'm in worse shape than I thought!

The last third of the trail to the falls was switch backs, and they weren't very friendly ones!  :-)  I made it, obviously, but I wasn't too happy about it... motivation to get in better shape!

When we got to the top of the worst of it, I took my hat off and rested for a bit... it didn't show up very well on the camera... but I was steaming in the cool mountain air... :-)  

It was very nice to be back on the Iron Horse Trail, that's for sure!  As a rail bed, the average grade is only 2%, so its pretty flat!

After reading the sign, we talked about bringing our bikes up here, and riding up to the Snoqualmie Tunnel and back... that'd be a fun trip!

Just before heading back down the trail to the parking lot, I snapped nice shot  of Grouse Ridge, on the other side of the valley.  It was a nice last look before heading back in.

Added in 2008

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