Twin Falls 8.20.17
My Mom got back from her Alaskan cruise Sunday morning so after I picked her up from the cruise terminal and we rested a little at home, I wanted to get out for a hike. I know she had seen a bunch of mountains in Alaska but I still wanted to get her out in them before her trip was over. I had Twin Falls and Gold Creek Pond in mind for her. For some reason I thought the Homestead Valley trailhead at Exit 38 required a forest service pass and I couldn’t quite remember the exit for Gold Creek Pond, so we stopped at exit 38 first to hike to Twin Falls. Turns out a Discover Pass is required instead (mine was expired). I also thought the hike to Twin Falls was easier from Exit 38 but I’d soon find out I was wrong.
Heading up the initial steep section of trail from the trailhead
There were still several spots in the parking lot when we arrived around noon, much to my surprise. I applied my sunscreen and grabbed the pack with some water and snacks for us. We started up the steep trail from the parking lot to intercept the Iron Horse trail. The trail is nice and shady but the steepness is a good indicator of things to come. We continued hiking right along the Iron Horse trail, I had seen a sign in the past pointing out Twin Falls so we kept our eyes peeled for that. After about 0.7 miles from the trailhead we found the brown sign along the left side of the trail, pointing out the Twin Falls trail to the right.
Found the Twin Falls trail off of the Iron Horse trail
The trail traverses across the hillside with quite a bit of road noise from I-90 below. The first section of the trail that wasn’t in the trees was a bit overgrown, surprising for how popular I assumed the trail was. Soon we were hiking through the tall trees with lots of green moss and ferns along the way. The elevation change in this section wasn’t too much, it’s mostly a long traverse.
Initial section of the Twin Falls trail, a bit more overgrown than I expected
We came around a corner and I spotted a few switchbacks below us. Looking at the map on my GPS I thought we were close to the falls but wasn’t sure, and if we went down we’d have to come back up. We discussed it and decided to keep going. This section of the trail is finally when we started seeing more people, otherwise it had been pretty quiet.
Hiking through the trees, green moss, and ferns
We had three switchbacks to go down and then we saw a bench - we had made it to the upper viewpoint of the falls! There were quite a few more people here, I’m assuming most of them coming up the trail from the other direction. We got a good view of the upper falls and took a few pictures. We then headed back up to the nearby bench to drink some water and have some snacks. There were three chipmunks hanging out in the area, you could tell they were seasoned pros in where to try and find food from the hikers.
[Left] Upper portion of Twin Falls. [Right] One of three chipmunks looking for a snack
After a break we started our way back up the switchbacks. We took a break after the first one but then didn’t take a break until back at the top of the third! There were a few logs along the way to sit on but not much, most of our breaks were standing.
Nice area for a break at the top of the switchbacks
After that we started back up the long traverse. We met a few people up here but it was pretty quiet. It’s about 0.9 miles between the falls and Iron Horse trail so we were happy when we got back on the Iron Horse trail because we knew it wasn’t too far back to the car.
View of the mountains north along I-90 as we head back along the Iron Horse trail
At the trail split we took a left to head back to the trailhead, and one final left off of that onto the steep, skinny trail in the trees. The parking lot was still surprisingly not full. After a little bit tougher than expected hike, we headed back to Seattle deciding to save Gold Creek Pond for a future trip.
GPS track
Trail to Twin Falls from the Homestead Valley trailhead at Exit 38
Traverse to Twin Falls above I-90