Places in Washington: Palouse Falls State Park

Basic Information

• Name: Palouse Falls State Park
• Where: Starbuck, WA
• Cost: $10 (Discover Pass users enter for free)
• Hours: 6:30AM to Dusk
• More Information: Palouse Falls brochure

Directions

Palouse Falls State Park is located in a very isolated area of Washington State.  To get there from I-90, first travel to the city of Ritzville located in Eastern Washington.  From Ritzville travel south on Highway 261 to Washtucna.  The road is a single lane highway that travels through the wheat fields of Eastern Washington before getting to Washtucna.  At Washtucna continue South on Highway 261 and drive through the extremely small town.  The town is located where this section of Washington State’s Channeled Scablands begins.  Stay on 261 going south and look for the turn going to the east towards Palouse Falls.  Continue to follow the road as it twists and turns through the Scablands.  The next turn is on to Palouse Falls Road which is a rough dirt road about 2-miles long to the park.

Parking

There is a large parking lot at Palouse Falls State Park, but it is so busy here that the park rangers control traffic by directing people where to park as other visitors pull out of parking spaces.  I did not have to wait too long to find a place to be directed to park at.

Narrative

The remote location and surprisingly rough dirt road is not enough to deter visitors to Palouse Falls State Park.  The weekend I took my kids to the falls it was packed with cars.  Fortunately most people stop and take a picture of the falls and then leave.  This meant we were able to find parking pretty quickly in the packed parking lot.  From the parking lot it was an easy walk over to the view point to see Palouse Falls:

I had heard the falls were quite large, but it was even bigger than I was expecting.  Palouse Falls is definitely impressive and even more so because it is located in such an arid landscape.  Ironically this arid landscape known as the Channeled Scablands was created by cataclysmic floods that occurred during the last Ice Age about 12,000 – 18,000 years ago.  Flood waters from an ice dam that continuously broke over hundreds of years flooded Eastern Washington and cut out the huge canyons known today as Coulees.  Many of these coulees are now lakes, but the Palouse River is one of the few rivers that run through these huge canyons:

From the viewpoint there is a short trail that provides further views of Palouse Falls that we decided to follow:

Along the trail there were signs every where warning people about the danger of falling off the side of the cliffs:

According to this newspaper article 4 people have died at Palouse Falls in the past three years:

I kept my kids well away from the cliffs edge and was still able to take some amazing pictures of Palouse Falls:

The trail eventually gets right above the waterfall and there is even a side trail for people to walk down to the top of the falls.  With two young children with me there was no way I was taking them down that sketchy looking trail:

Instead we followed the main trail away from Palouse Falls towards a great view of a huge rapid area that was pretty impressive:

Here is a closer look at these rapids:

There was of course signs back here as well warning that people have fallen to their deaths here:

There was a trail as well that led down into the canyon where the rapids were, but my kids were not up for the hike so we just followed the main trail as it looped back to the parking lot.

Conclusion

Back in 2014 Palouse Falls was named the official waterfall of Washington State.  This has increased the popularity of Palouse Falls from 46,000 visitors annually to now 200,000.  The increase in visitors is for good reason because even though Palouse Falls is way off the beaten path, it is one of the locations that everyone living in Washington State should take the time to go and visit.  The waterfall and the surrounding canyon really are quite impressive to see.  It is best to visit between April-June since that is when the falls is at its most impressive due to the Spring snowmelt.  Keep in mind though to be safe when visiting the falls; there is very little fencing and any fall here would be fatal.  By staying on the main trails and away from the ledges this will ensure a great, but safe experience when visiting this must see natural attraction in Washington State.