Skookum Falls
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| | Raps:4, max ↨220ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Required 5.1 mi Vehicle:Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 21 Dec 2024
"Low elevation, easy access, short day and great seasonal flow makes Skookum a lovely winter objective. The tall waterfalls are so fun and the flow is |
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| Best season: | Winter to Spring
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47.0501, -121.5765
47.0560, -121.5836
47.0530, -121.5724
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Introduction
500+ft of rappelling with a short approach and even shorter exit (if the river crossing permits). An exciting exposed anchor station provided moderate technicality.
A good early season option, with excellent pay-to-play ratio.
Approach
From Enumclaw, drive 27 miles east on WA-410 until you reach the Skookum Falls Viewpoint on your right. Stop here to check the flow and confirm that the log spanning the river is still there. You will use this log to cross the river on the exit. Once confirmed the log is all good, park your exit vehicle(s) here.
To get to the start parking, take a left (north) out of the parking area. Continue for 2.1 miles and take the first left turn onto FS-7300. Continue for 1.3 miles until the road forks. Take the left fork onto FS-7315 and continue for 1.7 miles until you see an old forest road branching off to your left. Park here (47.05556, -121.58372).
Note: FS-7315 is closed and gated from December 15 to May 1. If you are running Skookum in winter or early spring, you will need to park outside the gate and hike the 1.7 miles and 900’ elevation gain to reach the turnoff for the old forest road.
Follow the overgrown forest road on foot for 0.6 miles. As the road loses definition, follow the sound of water to reach the water course.
Descent
An efficient route from the end of the approach road down to the main falls is to:
- R1 (150ft) dry-rap the wooded cliffs from a tree ~100ft NW of where you meet the creek to the watercourse.
- R2 (60ft) rap from a log, following the water course down a ramp leading to the exposed edge of the main falls.
From here things are obvious:
- R3 (210ft) - Upper falls, from tree DCR (space for 2 people), down to middle ledge.
- R4 (220ft) - Lower falls, from DCL tree, to bottom.
Note: from R4 anchor you don't have line of sight to the bottom, nor do whistle signals work well (as the only rock wall is bouncing the sound away from the anchor). So keep on top of managing rope length.
Note: the original beta from the Canyoneering Northwest site stated rappel lengths of 150ft. We used at least 200ft on both the large rappels. The size of 1ft must have shrunk over the years.
Exit
Follow the well established Skookum Falls Trail downhill 100m, then turn North onto the Skookum Flats Trail.
From there you've got two options:
- Very short: bushwhack to the river, and cross close to the view point.
- Much longer: follow the trail north 3km to the closest bridge at NF73.
Note: since early 2020s a blown down tree has provided a stable footbridge to cross the river directly next to the view point.
Red tape
None
Beta sites
-
CanyoneeringNorthwest.com (archive.org) : Skookum Falls
Trip reports and media
5 July 2017 Drone footage
