Marietta Falls

RATING - 48.0

VR - 6.0 (Med) HR - 6.0 SR - 12/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Bushwhack

DIFFICULTY - Medium

LOCATION - South Skagit Highway

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 141'

WIDTH - 15'

GPS - N48 30.525 W121 55.156

ELEVATION - 277'

DIRECTIONS - Drive along the South Skagit Highway to the point where it crosses over O'Toole Creek. Just west of the creek is a logging road. Turn into it and immediately park at the gate. A small trail leads along the creek for a little ways. When it ends, cross the creek (which will require you getting wet) and climb up the 15' tall hill/cliff on the far side. Someone has graciously left a rope to assist the climb. From there just follow the hillside around to a nice rock with a good view. It is possible to get closer to the falls but you will get wet and in high water it would be very dangerous.

Marietta Falls is one of the best waterfalls in the lower part of Skagit Valley. O'Toole Creek drops 141' into a very steeply walled canyon and runs through a series of huge boulders. The main tier of the falls is a 102' tall plunging drop that walls into a pretty pool of water. Unfortunately, getting up close to the falls is pretty difficult except in the summer when the volume is lower. The 39' tall upper tier can be reached from the logging road above the falls but it's not worth the trouble unless you're doing something else further up the road. The falls are not too difficult to reach, but do requiring fording the creek once (not easy in high water) and climbing up a fairly steep hill (although someone has put a rope there to aid the climb). As you can see from the pictures below, there's really one common vantage point, but it's good enough you don't need another one. It is possible to get closer to the falls if you don't mind getting really wet.