Palouse Falls

We woke up early and were all packed and out the door of the cabin by 8:00.  Our goal today was to drive the seven hours to Palouse (PA-LOOSE) Falls and camp around the area.  The drive took us from the beautiful mountains of Glacier to the desert of Eastern Washington.  The area is so dry and is primarily used as rangeland and dry wheat farms. 

We took I-90 across the state for hours and eventually turned off in an agricultural town.  We drove past 30 miles of rolling hills with various stages of wheat harvest and ended at the confluence of the Palouse River and the Snake River.  The Palouse Falls were recently designated as Washington’s state waterfall.  This waterfall cascades 198ft down into a beautiful horseshoe type bowl.

We arrived and hiked around the area.  There are no trail maps or designated trails, just heavily worn paths from human traffic and dangerous loose soil and rock hillside paths which lead down to the bottom of the main falls. 

Just upstream from the main waterfall is a series of cascades which are great for cooling off and relaxing in the water. 

Our evening was spent at a local KOA which was only 6 miles from Palouse Falls.  There is camping at Palouse but it is first come, first served and we didn’t want to chance not getting a site so we locked up a spot at the KOA earlier in the day. 

The KOA had beautiful views of a large reservoir of water and a train bridge that happened to be one of the longest in the country, according to one gentleman who was very knowledgeable about trains.  The trains must traverse it very slowly to avoid swaying the track when crossing.  We didn't take a picture of the train bridge but we did take a picture of the car bridge over the reservoir.