Wallace Falls State Park is a great early season hike to get you prepared for the bigger hikes after the snow melt. This was hike 14 of 50 hikes planned at age 50 for me. This is a great hike but do it during the week if possible. Too many people on the trail on the weekend with little respect for others on the trail. If you have to do the trail on the weekend get there by 8:00am because the parking lot fills up fast. The trails were in good shape but muddy from rain the day before. The falls are running really hard as you can see if you click my links or go to my youtube channel and check out my videos of this hike. I hiked this trail with my new friend Jim who I have found has more experience and has hiked many more trails than me. It was nice to get inside tips on other great hikes from an experienced hiker. Thanks for the companionship today. Hope to hike with him on a lot more trails in the future. We hiked the complete Woody Trail then headed up the small section above the upper falls to Upper Railroad Grade Trail made a left and headed another 2.5 miles to Wallace Lake. Excellent place to see so take the extra time to hike to the lake. We then hiked down the Greg Ball Trail back to Woody Trail and out. We had sunshine for a litte while at the lake which was nice for picture taking. The trails we hiked were approximately 9 to 10 miles total. Checkout my youtube channel which is lmm3181. I have lots of videos of hikes I have done in Washington State. Follow along with me and read about by attempt to hike 50 trails at age 50 over twelve months. Below is direct link to four of the videos of this hike today. Yes they are safe to click on. Enjoy your hiking!!! Mike P.S. Sorry John Deer for the repeat but I go through extensive effort to do good reports, pictures for WTA and link my videos for people to see on my youtube channel. This year I am documenting my attempt to do 50 hikes at age 50. I tried to make it some what different than yours. Take Care. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqmiuFn6dEs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npLtvTqQJ54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rb09bZgZuE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJCxTgqa-ys

we started out early, before 11 am. THe parking lot was on its way to being full. we hiked for a while, it was very beautiful, but a lot of people. we had our dog off leash, there were a lot of other dogs, most on leash though... we eventually got to a fork in the trail.. we stayed to the right in order to view the middle and upper falls. both were great. there are a lot of switch backs on the way up to the upper falls. once you get there, most people turn back. There is a big warning sign telling you if you continue on, you better be prepared. we decided to continue on. for about 15 minutes there is no real trail at all! you see these blue diamond markers on the trees, and you follow the markers! its a little scary, but very exciting! you go from tree to tree, and eventually you make your way out of the thick wooded area, onto an old rr trail, that bikes can go on. we walked it for quite a way, and there are signs at almost all the forks in the roads. we decided we had made good time, and went to go check out wallace lake. it was pretty. there was water on the trails the lake wasnt that big of a deal though, but it was fun. then we headed back, but not the way we came. we kept following the rr trail west until we got to another trail marker, marking the greg ball trail, going south, back down to almost the original trail we started on... that was an easy hike down. we made a big loop i had a lot of fun. we hiked over 6 hours i would do it again its fun to continue on past the upper falls. very little people do it, and its exciting!

Got to the parking lot of Wallace Falls State Park at around 10am. Not too full, about half the parking spots were taken. It was a gorgeous day to be outside! It was about 38F and clear skies. The trail was wet, but it wasn't too muddy. The wooden bridges were a bit slippery, so watch out for that. The trail was very well kept. I really liked the signs that showed you where you were on the trail. It really helped keep track of my pace. I have not been on any other trail that had that type of navigation and it was cool to see. The Upper Falls were somewhat of an un-climactic end to the hike. I was expecting more of a view.

We hiked from the trail head on the Railroad grade to the DNR Road. On the DNR road we headed to Wallace Lake, then down Woody Trail to the Upper Wallace Falls. The weather was great but great while we were in the open on the DNR road. As we got into the trees closer to Wallace Lake there was a quite a bit of snow on the ground. As we headed down Woody Trail towards the Falls we thought we may have to figure out our own trail to get there. When you head from the Upper Falls towards Lake Wallace there is a sign warning hikers that the trail is not well marked going to Wallace Lake, and that only experienced people should attempt it. We got to the end of Woody Trail, and thought that we had to make our own trail, so we started trekking straight through the woods. When we had gotten about half way Jordan realized that we had missed the trail heading from Woody Trail towards the Upper Falls. We had misread the sign pointing towards the falls, and if we had just followed it we would have had an easily marked quarter mile trail to the falls. Contrary to what the sign says this is NOT a difficult trail, and should be as easily hiked as the section from the Middle Falls to the Upper Falls. Overall this was a very long, but very enjoyable hike. We got back to the car worn out but feeling good about the day.

Time to start another year of hiking. Another in a series of cold clear days. I chose to do some miles without needing snowshoes. It was cold enough I chose to not get a real early start. Passing through Sultan I saw a sign blinking the temperature - 20 degrees. That's cold at only a few hundred feet above sea level. There were half a dozen cars in the Wallace Falls State Park lot near the rental cabins. There were only two cars near the trailhead. I hit the trail at 9:30 am. The parking lot was icy. Getting to the trail without falling was a battle. The trail starts on a gravel road and it was mostly ice. There was enough snow off to the side to provide a little traction. Our sub freezing last week has made busy trails very slick. I chose to hike up the very busy trail to the falls and down the less used Greg Ball Trail from the lake. To get in an extra mile I took the old railroad grade instead of the Woody Trail which is nearer the river. The tread was slick but not too bad. The grade is pretty gentle and I managed to stay on my feet without a traction device. I passed the first trail that drops to the Woody Trail. I took the second one. In short order I was on the Woody Trail. The route soon drops to the bridge over the NF Wallace River. Wooden steps covered in ice. Time for Yaktrax. They made all the difference. I kept them on all the way to the road above the upper falls. Great traction. Not even close to falling down. I stopped at the shelter and met two other hikers. Nice views of the lower falls. Now I had solitude and it lasted most of the rest of the day. Very nice look at the middle falls. Snow flocked the trees all around. The upper falls also looked great. This trail is always packed on a nice day. Also packed on a lot of rainy days. I followed tracks for a short way from the upper falls and blue diamonds began. They led up to the road above. There was not all that much snow. The route was easy enough to follow. The snow depth was 3-5 inches on the upper road in the forest. There were half a dozen boot tracks. There is very little elevation change on the 2.4 miles to the lake. When the old road reached the new logging road I broke out of the forest. The open road had more snow but it was still no more than 6-8 inches deep. The existing boot tracks helped too. I made steady though slower progress. The trail entered forest 1/3 mile from the lake. I soon crossed the bridge over the outlet and found many more boot prints. A number of folks had hiked to the lake but not the falls. Now I just had to hike to the other end of the lake. Tracks started around the lake but soon there was only one track left. It was cold in the forest but I could see bright sun shining on the lake. At the end of the lake I found the inlet creek was dry. I walked down the creek bed instead of fighting through the brush. Pebble beach was under water but the water was low enough to provide a snowy shore. The sun sure felt nice. It was now up to about 30 degrees but felt much warmer in the sunshine. It was 12:45 as I sat down to lunch. It took 3:15 to hike 7 1/2 miles per my GPS. Ice and snow lined the lake. It is still mostly open with some frozen water near the shore. There was a nice reflection of the far shore and forested peaks just beyond. The person who had made the lone track went to Pebble Beach then continued on towards Jay Lake. When I left that person was still behind me. I spent half and hour enjoying the views and the sun. At 1:15 I packed up and started back. The sun is very low and it was already dropping behind the ridge. I was in cold forest for most all the hike out. Cold enough to break out my warmest gloves. I had heard a barking dog at the other end of the lake but when I returned there was no sign of dog or owner. GPS recorded 7/10 of a mile to the lake inlet. I hiked along the old road back to the newer road. It has been 22 years since my first visit. The lake was seldom visited via the old road route. A right turn quickly brought me to the Greg Ball Trail. I trail runner was coming up the logging road route. Other tracks headed down the road too. I chose the shorter trail route back. The trail was packed down but not nearly as icy as the trail to Wallace Falls. The Yaktrax stayed in my pack. The two miles of trail went pretty fast. Near the end of the trail I was passed by a mountain biker. They are allowed on roads in the park and can follow those roads to the lake and beyond. They are not allowed on the Greg Ball Trail. Oh well... From the end of the trail I could hike out 1.3 miles vial the Woody Trail or 2.3 miles via the railroad grade. I chose the latter. It went fast enough. I saw several folks heading out as I was hiking back. It was 3:15 when I reached my car. It took two hours to hike 5.7 miles out from Pebble Beach. This is a great winter hike as the high point is under 2000' and seldom has a lot of snow. A fairly early start allowed for a great deal of solitude. The view of the falls with snow flocked trees all around was worth the trip. Add in the view from Pebble Beach and the sunny shore and it made for a great day. My GPS recorded a little over 13 miles with 1800' of elevation gain. It was a great if cold day in the mountains. I have posted all 36 fully annotated photos on my site at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips-2011" on the left margin.