Great Falls is a 300-foot tiered plunge waterfall on Meade Fork Conrad Creek in Yakima County, Washington, high in the Goat Rocks. The creek pours off a cliff band ringing an alpine basin at about 5,780 feet, just below the Meade Glacier.
The falls
A survey done in person describes three tiers: a sheer plunge of about 140 feet, a slide of about 90 feet and a final 70-foot horsetail, averaging about 20 feet wide. Earlier surveys listed 320 feet with a 120-foot tallest drop. The creek rises in Meade Glacier on Gilbert Peak, and the falls cut through tuff left by the long-extinct Goat Rocks volcano.
Getting there
There is no developed trail to the falls, and the approach is described as difficult with no published directions. The nearest documented route is the South Fork Tieton trail from Conrad Meadows into the Goat Rocks Wilderness; it crosses private land with the owner's permission and requires wilderness self-registration. The final distance and climb to the falls aren't documented.
When to go
The falls are glacier-fed and run strongest from May through August.
History and name
An expedition exploring the headwaters of the South Fork Tieton River found and named the falls in 1906, and S. C. Smith photographed them; the waterfall is also known as the Great Falls of the Tieton and Upper Meade Falls. An 1889 account in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer suggests Josiah Wiley may have reached them first.
Nearby
Meade Meadows Falls is about 0.3 mile away, Meade Glacier Falls about 0.5 mile, and Crescent Falls on Conrad Creek about 0.6 mile. The nearest town, Tieton, is about 33 miles to the northeast, and Yakima about 42.2 miles.
Distances are straight-line.