Waterfalls in Washington

Finding waterfalls in Washington, from Cascade peaks to canyon country

Two mountain ranges and one ancient flood account for most of Washington's 2,598 named waterfalls. Rain and snowmelt pour off volcanic peaks the length of the Cascades, orographic rain feeds a temperate rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula, and in the dry east a single Ice Age megaflood cut the canyon around one well-known drop on the Palouse River. Wider counts that include every drop, named or not, put the statewide total above 3,000.

Where the waterfalls are

The Cascade Range splits the state and holds most of its falls. Glaciers feed the North Cascades in Whatcom and Skagit counties; the national park there has more than 300 glaciers, the most heavily glaciated area in the country outside Alaska. South of there, King County (I-90) and Snohomish County (US 2) carry the foothill falls closest to Seattle, while Chelan, Okanogan, Kittitas and Yakima counties hold the drier east-slope falls. Mount Rainier National Park spans Pierce and Lewis counties, where creeks drop over old volcanic rock along the park's main road above Longmire.

The Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge (Skamania and Klickitat counties) and Olympic National Park's glacier peaks, rain forest and coast (Jefferson, Clallam, Mason and Grays Harbor counties) fill out the state's wetter edges. East of the mountains, where named falls thin out, the megaflood carved the canyon around Whitman County's waterfall.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Palouse Falls, 186 feet off a basalt rim, is Washington's official state waterfall; the viewpoint is a short walk from the lot.
• Snoqualmie Falls drops 268 feet over an amphitheater of volcanic rock east of Seattle, with an upper viewpoint steps from the lot.
• Comet Falls, 462 feet in four tiers on Van Trump Creek in Mount Rainier National Park, is a 3.8-mile round trip with about 900 feet of climbing.
• Sol Duc Falls, where the river splits into several channels before dropping 48 feet into a narrow canyon, is a level 0.8-mile walk through Olympic old growth.
• Bridal Veil Falls near Gold Bar drops about 1,315 feet in tiers up Mount Index, reached by a multi-mile day hike on the Lake Serene Trail.
• Franklin Falls, 151 feet near Snoqualmie Pass, is an easy 2-mile round trip with 400 feet of gain.
• Panther Creek Falls, 136 feet on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge, splits into two veils that reunite over lower tiers, a 0.16-mile round trip to a fenced viewpoint.

When to go

West of the Cascades, rain and lowland snowmelt keep falls like Snoqualmie and Franklin running hardest from fall through early summer. High, snow-fed drops such as Comet Falls are best left until the snow is fully gone, sometimes into June or July. Sol Duc Falls peaks March through July. East of the mountains, Palouse Falls carries the most water from December through May. Winter shuts the North Cascades Highway every year between the Ross Dam trailhead and the Silver Star gate; it closed for the 2025-26 season on December 4, 2025.

Fees, passes and closures

Washington State Parks, including Palouse Falls, take a Discover Pass: $10 a day or $45 a year per vehicle in 2026. Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks each charge $30 per vehicle for seven days, $25 for a motorcycle and $15 on foot or bike, and Rainier will not run timed entry in 2026. North Cascades National Park charges no entrance fee; a Northwest Forest Pass, $5 a day or $30 a year, is needed only at national forest trailheads next to the park. Some forest pullouts, including Panther Creek Falls, charge nothing, while the Franklin Falls trailhead lot closed for the 2025-26 winter, with parking moved to the older Asahel Curtis Sno-Park. Snoqualmie Falls, on utility-owned land, asks nothing at the gate.

Safety

Basalt ledges and cold, fast currents make several of these falls dangerous up close. Washington State Parks bans swimming and any approach to the plunge pool at Palouse Falls, where two visitors died in 2018, one swimming below the falls and one falling from the rim above. A fatal fall in 2018 led to a fenced, rerouted viewpoint above Panther Creek Falls, and a hiker drowned after slipping from rocks above Sol Duc Falls in 2025. At Mount Rainier, wait until the snow has fully melted before hiking to Comet Falls: an avalanche buried the trail for a year in 2012. Stay behind railings and off the rocks above any drop.