Snoqualmie Falls

It's almost the end of the school year... four...more...days.  The kiddos are READY and full of ENERGY and I leave school exhausted.  Almost done with my first school year in Washington state!  Holy cow!

I got out of the house for a bit and hit up one of the "tourist" destinations on my long list of places to find and explore.  The town of Snoqualmie is just a little to the east of Seattle and the Snoqualmie Falls is nestled just a few minutes from the interstate.  The weather was absolutely perfect with lots of sunshine and it wasn't overwhelmingly warm out.  

I wasn't really sure how much hiking would take place here, but as it turns out, there isn't much at all.  You basically park and walk across the street and suddenly you're looking at this...

Snoqualmie Falls has a nice resort/hotel/spa located right next to it, as well as a gift shop with all kinds of Washington souvenirs.  I can't say I've ever been to a waterfall before, so this was a fun little excursion.

Since there was basically zero walking required to see the waterfall from up top, we went ahead and hit the trails to make our way to the bottom.  The trails were wide, partly paved, and easy to get down, with lots of people going back and forth.  There's a nice walk way along the edge down below to get a great lower view of the falls.

Then we ventured off just a tad to the road less traveled (but still well traveled) and hiked our way all the way down to the water.  We discovered a parking lot closer to the bottom in case you wanted to avoid the hike from the top (although to be honest, the hike down wasn't so bad, it was the hike back UP that made me wish we had parked there).

I loved being at the base by the water.  Although there was no view of the falls from this location, it was the greatest place to find a rock and enjoy.  I climbed a large rock and was able to just sit in the sun and relax.  The sound of the water cancelled out the sounds of everyone nearby enjoying the water as well.

I spent a good chunk of time down there just admiring the great outdoors....and got some sunshine on my shoulders.

The internet recommended that I stop by the gift shop and pick up some pancake mix, so obviously I did just that.  The pancakes were good, so I'd recommend this destination + pancake mix if you're here.  I love that Seattle offers the opportunity to be places like this within 20-30 minutes.  Not a bad weekend.