Snoqualmie Falls Washington

Steve and I LOVE waterfalls. So when we arrived at Blue Sky RV Park in Issaquah Washington, and learned that one of most popular scenic international attractions, Snoqualmie Falls, was just minutes away, we hurriedly finished setting up and headed for the falls.

Snoqualmie Falls Washington

Located east of Seattle (as was our RV park) Snoqualmie Fall is a 268-foot tall waterfall on the Snoqualmie River. Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state is actually 100-feet taller than Niagara FaIls, It is one of the state of Washington’s most popular sites. More than one and a half million visitors come to the Falls annually.

There’s lots to do at the falls besides just enjoying the cascading rush of water.  You will also find a two-acre park, gift shop, observation deck and the Salish Lodge. The upper observation and lower observation decks for falls viewing are open every day of the year from dawn until dusk! You can even bring your fur babies as long as they’re on a leash.

A brief history of Snoqualmie Falls

When the glaciers receded several millennia ago, a fertile plain neat Snoqualmie Fall was left in their wake. Native Americans arrived and found a bounty of edible bulbs, roots and berries, as well as herds of deer and mountain goats on the prairie.

There weren’t any salmon above the falls but that didn’t stop the upper Snoqualmie River from becoming a seasonal meeting place for trade among the indigenous people. The Snoqualmie Tribe, which is a subgroup of the Coast Salish, established a camp at the foot of Mount Si. In addition, they established villages at Fall City and Tolt which is now known as Carnation.

Snoqualmie, which is the English pronunciation of a Salish word meaning moon, was a spiritual place. It gave birth to many legends such as the tale of the beaver, S’Beow, who ascended into the sky to bring trees and fire down to earth. Those Native Americans who roamed the valley became known as the people of the moon.

White settlers arrive in the valley

By the early 1850s, white settlers had begun to arrive in the valley. As the first permanent white settler Jeremiah Worst became known as the father of the Snoqualmie Valley.

A few years later, in 1862, Josiah Merritt, referred to as Uncle Si, built a cabin at the base of one of the local mountains. This led to the peak being known as Uncle Si’s mountain. Today it’s called Mount Si. Uncle Si grew vegetables, had an orchard and raised hogs. He was a rugged man who occasionally hauled bacon to the large settlements.

Doing this meant he had to haul his wares on a sled to the river, canoe downstream, then strap his load to his back and climb down the almost 270-foot falls, hike several miles and then canoe the rest of the distance to Everett or Seattle!

By 1877, several logging operations had begun in the area. In that time logs were floated over the falls and then down the river to Everett and Puget Sound. By 1889 entrepreneurs had built a railroad system into the valley which opened up timber resources to the world market.

In 1889 a civil engineer named Charles Baker, platted the town of Snoqualmie. Baker also built an underground power plant at the falls in the 1890s whose original generators are still functioning to this day! This brought electricity to the area as well as jobs for locals. In 1911, a second powerhouse was constructed.

You can view the falls without hiking at all! The upper observation deck is just off the parking lot and a short walk from the Salish Lodge and offers an unrestricted view of Snoqualmie Falls.

Salish Lodge and Spa

Salish Lodge was built in 1919 and is situated near the edge of the falls. It is owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe. Recently the Snoqualmie and Muckleshoot Indian Tribes made an historic announcement that an agreement had been reached to transfer ownership of the Salish Lodge and Spa, along with the land surrounding Snoqualmie Falls, to the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe. This purchase encompassed about 45 acres of land in the tribes traditional territory.

Fun fact about Salish Lodge and Spa