Upper Washington Falls

RATING - 28.4

VR - 1.8 (Sm) HR - 8.0 SR - 14/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Roadside

DIFFICULTY - Very Easy

LOCATION - Finney Creek Road

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 455'

WIDTH - 20'

DIRECTIONS - Take HWY 20 east to Concrete and turn right/south onto Concrete-Sauk Road. Stay on this for around 8 miles until you come to the obviously signed Finney Ck Road. The road crosses over Finney Creek at around 5 miles and then again at around 11 miles. In another mile, take a left onto another gravel road (I think it's FR 1710). Follow this road for 2.5 miles until you see the falls.

Upper Washington Falls is a VERY tall waterfall located just upstream from a rarely used forest service road. The waterfall begins with a 310' horsetail. Below this the creek immediately begins the 112' tall middle section, which consists of a series of cascading drops. The waterfall finishes with a pretty 33' curtain of water that can be seen clearly from the road. The entire waterfall totals 455' in height, making it one of the tallest in the western part of Skagit Valley. The downside to all this is that the creek the waterfall lies on is very small in volume. I've never seen it run completely dry, but it gets pretty close by the end of the July. If you attempt to visit this waterfall, do it as early in the spring as possible once the snow melts (probably the end of May most years), or wait until a rainy stretch in the fall.

You can get a pretty good view of the waterfall from the car, but to get a close view of the main portion of the falls, you'll have to do some fancy climbing. There are only a couple places where the hillside is really steep, but the climb up is exhausting. Devils club is absolutely everywhere around the falls as well, so bring some gloves and long sleeves.