Spirit Falls is a magical place in Pacific Northwest. The waterfall has huge volume of water with beautiful turquoise colour. It is located near Cook, Washington state. However, Spirit Falls is actually located on a private land owned by the lumber company and there is not an official trail to get to the fall. The unofficial trail passes skirts around the privately owned land and hikers should make sure they don't trespass into the privately owned land. Since the trail is unofficial, it is not maintained and hikers are using it at their own risk. The trail is only 0.4 miles long to get to the falls but the trail is extremely steep.
We got to the trail head around 8AM and parked the car on the shoulder of the road right before the privately owned land. Then we walked towards to the open area and the trail head is located at the Southeast corner of the open area. The trail started off with a steep slope going downwards and we had to go very slowly due to large rocks on the trail.
Once we got down the first portion, we saw a path heading up the ridge and thought that was the trail, we went up the ridge and found that there was no where else to go. We had to come back down the ridge, which was a bit scary due to the drop off on both sides. When we got down the ridge, we found that the trail actually did a sharp left turn and continued downwards.
While heading down the slope, we were constantly checking our location on our phone to ensure we weren't crossing into privately owned land. After about 25 minutes, we finally got to the waterfall. The last part of the trail was very slippery due to the water flowing across the trail.
When we got to the waterfall, we were amazed by its beautiful turquoise coloured water. Also, due to the thick foliage above the waterfall, there wasn't any sun light at the waterfall and it was just beautiful. On the right side of the waterfall, there was a small narrow path heading down to the water level. We carefully climbed down there and it was amazing there. Note that getting down there is extremely dangerous due to the slippery rock and narrow path. Do not attempt to do this if you are alone by yourself.
As we heading back, the climb up on the trail was tiring but it was easier than heading down. The distance was also short so we were able to get back in 15 minutes.
This Spirit Falls was an amazing experience. The water level is a bit low at this time of the year, we would probably try again in the future during an earlier time of the year.
EmoticonEmoticon