Franklin Falls

This post has something in common with the previous one - a major Interstate Highway going over the top. In the previous entry, it was I-5 and the the Ship Canal Bridge. In this one, it is the westbound lanes of I-90, just west of Snoqualmie Pass.

This was last Saturday morning. The road (at least for me) ended at a big pile of snow a mile or so below the Denny Creek Campground, which added a little time to the relatively short hike. The walking was on dirty, packed, end-of-season snow - but maybe still a couple feet of it all the way to the falls.  I had the place to myself (8:30 in the morning), although I passed a few folks walking in as I headed back out.

This is a neat little area - just above Exit 47 and tucked into the valley between (but out of site of) the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-90. Most of the time, the creek is noisy enough to drown out the traffic, but occasionally a loud truck would be a reminder that this is just a particularly wide, well-forested median strip.

The 70' fall was full, but the big snow pile at the bottom of the avalanche chute right next to the falls was just as impressive. If you look up, you can see the highway.

My last trip to Franklin Falls was 6 years ago and I never got to the falls. It was my last adventure in my red Subaru, which almost ended up spending the winter stuck in the snow below the pass (Denny Creek: November 2011).

My scheme this trip (albeit a dubious one) was to get back to town in time to catch the Men's and Women's Eights in the UW - Cal race in the Montlake Cut. But I ended up spending any extra time I had stuck in traffic due to the weekend lane closures on westbound I-90 across the lake. I was still home shortly after 11, leaving plenty of time to visit Home Depot and do house chores.