We started out at the trailhead on Highway 410, 1/4 mile east of the SKookum Falls overlook. The trail goes steeply up on a good grade past a beautiful waterfall, up some stairs to the top of the falls then into forest with a couple of loops out onto the Palisades to view the White River valley and across to Suntop.LO Then across a clearcut, back into the woods to cross Snoquera Creek-Snow patches from here on-probably will melt in 2 weeks- ice axe not needed but poles helpful! Then up to glorious views from the higher Palisades across to Mt Rainier. After traversing the ridge-through patchy snow we came to a shelter and junction with Ranger Creek trail. The trip down the gully with a little stream and larger snow patches was a little harder. Just as we were about to run out of the snow patches we encountered a large blowdown which was passable but required a little negotiation to figure out the trail. There were other small step across blowdowns before. From there on, down Ranger Creek Trail and across the White River Trail was easy walking. Except for the time we went through the Camp Sheppard area on the White River Trail, we encountered only 2 people, one a polite mountain biker, . A great day 15.8 miles and about 2900 gain.

We have visited Snoquera several times the last few years. In January 2008, just prior to one of the major snowstorms, we observed a huge rockfall had taken place. The fellas at the boyscout camp told us it happened in Nov. 2007, and they could hear the rumbling for over a minute. We saw bowling ball sized chucks of 'blue ice'. Literally, sky blue colored pieces of ice. I later learned that this can only form under conditions of extreme pressure. Went back to confirm what we saw. The trail at the top was wiped out, all the brush was gone, the trees nearest the bottom of the cliff have been physically stripped of all their branches, there are gravel piles heaped along the uphill side of existing trees, and there are scars on existing trees as much as 40 feet up their trunks. We also noticed much forest floor detritus mixed in the very loose rubble. This must have come from above. Also a large portion of the rock face is missing its moss and lichen ""coating"". I approached the top of the new rock pile, and there were small bits of gravel landing around me. USE CAUTION ON THIS NEW SLOPE UNTIL IT STABILIZES.

Snoquera Falls is a favorite winter destination of mine so a friend and I decided to snowshoe up the trail with his dog. We ended up carrying our snowshoes the whole way since there was barely a few inches at the top. The weather was cool but above freezing when we started but grew colder as the day progressed. Rounding the last bend before Snoquera Creek (3210 ft elevation), we found that the last several hundred feet of trail have been obliterated by a major rock avalanche that appears to have originated far up on the cliffs just south of the falls. Most of the trees in this area have been wiped out and the few large, old trees that are still standing near the cliff have been almost completely stripped of limbs. The talus that now covers the trail and surrounding area is very unstable and, in combination with a thin layer of snow was difficult to traverse. This, combined with the possibility of more unstable rock above, convinced us to turn around and explore the lower trails instead. This area of severe trail damage will require some serious work parties to repair. I suspect this event occurred during the previous week or two and may have been triggered by the heavy rain. It's sad to see a favorite trail in this condition but undoubtedly there will be plenty of opportunities to help repair it in work parties this summer.

~ I knew that the falls themselves wouldn’t be spectacular at this time of year, but needed to get out for a short scenic hike. (there was even some fall color left) We opted for taking the Buck Creek Trail up to the Snoquera Falls Trail. It was quite cold at the bottom of the trial (right off of Hwy 410) so we didn’t stop for a lot of pictures until the return trip. The lower portion of the trail was filled with all sorts of interesting mushrooms and fungi (which I did photograph on the way back. We got up to the falls just before noon, and even though the air was crisp and cold, the sun warmed rocks were a fabulous place for lunch. The last stretch up to the base of the falls is a scramble and appears to be best done on the left side of the falls. The falls themselves were just trickling, but this trip is worth it for the views of the rock formations and across the valley. As I was photographing the falls, I had huge sloshy bunches of ice balls pummel me from above (likey frozen spray thawing and breaking loose as the sun warmed the rocks). Some of the ice balls were pretty big, (and hurt) so I decided to back away before I ended up with a concussion. The trail is in excellent condition and a good time was had by all. More picture are available here: http://www.wildcelticrose.net/lisasplace/snoquerafalls07.html ~L

This was a good-news, bad-news sort of hike. The bad news was that though the Forest Service said ""there's water in the falls"", I think the full story now is ""not much"". There were only a couple of spots (one off-trail) from which I could see any falls at all. The good news was that I had waited long enough in the year for all of the blow-downs reported earlier to have been cleared off, so on the south side of the loop there was nothing between the trailhead and the falls, and crossing the creek was easy. The only blow-down I encountered was just on the far side of the creek, and it was simple to walk under it. I went as far as where the cairns mark a passage across the slide, but not liking the looks of it (being alone, and with dogs, and slipping could send me a long way down) I turned back. Starflowers (both northern and broad-leaved) were out in force. There were several patches of coralroot. Unlike the previous report, I did start from Camp Sheppard. To find the trail, I started from the trail at the back of the parking lot and basically kept to a rule of staying straight ahead every time I reached a junction until I spotted a sign that actually said ""Snoquera Falls"". On the way back, I did not go directly back to Camp Sheppard but rather at the first junction down continued straight onward to make a mini-loop using the White River trail; this section of the falls trail *did* have blow-downs.