Sol Duc Falls — Sunday, Sep. 5, 2010

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

Our fourth and final toddler/grandparent-friendly hike of the Labor Day holiday. We were returning from La Push, and thought a hike to Sol Duc Falls would break up the long day nicely. I know it was a holiday weekend, but WOW, this is a popular hike. You have backpackers accessing the High Divide, hikers headed to Deer Lake and hordes of folks walking just to the falls. The hike is actually much shorter than Craig Romano's guidebook and his Hiking Guide entry here at wta.org suggests. Few people that I saw had started their journey at the resort. Instead, they drove to the road's end and filled up the enormous parking lot (like we did). This makes the hike only about 1.6 miles roundtrip instead of more than 5 miles. Since we had a 1 1/2 year old insisting to walk (instead of taking a ride on mama's back), we saw every hiker going up and coming down. Dozens and dozens of them. I was encouraged by the cultural diversity of my fellow hikers - different skin colors, different languages, young, old - all out enjoying this beautiful forest and falls. Sol Duc Falls was nice. The water drops into a chasm far below. This could be dangerous, but the National Park Service has installed fences just about everywhere. We held our toddler's hand firmly, but never really worried that she would tumble over the edge.