Denman Falls

Denman Falls is accessed from the Westside Road in Mount Rainier National Park. From the parking area at the gate on the Westside Road its 7 3/4 miles to St. Andrews Creek. The first 3/4 miles of that distance is spent traversing a pair of major washouts along Fish and Tahoma Creeks. Once across its an easy walk or bike along the old road. The Denman Falls trail starts to the immediate right of the St. Andrews Creek bridge and drops to the falls in about 1/4 mile.Saint Andrews Creek is one of the more well endowed streams in Mount Rainier National Park as far as waterfalls are concerned. Denman Falls is the only officially accessible waterfall on the creek, and possibly the tallest waterfall on the creek as well. The falls are claimed to drop 122 feet, I measured it at 141 feet, so reality is probably somewhere between. Unfortunately while the falls have been accessible for almost as long as the park has existed, the official viewpoint for the falls is largely obstructed. Early photos of the falls showed a more head-on view of the falls which makes me think that the trail that at one time descended to Larrupin and Ethania Falls further downstream might have gotten close to the bottom of Denman Falls as well. Further investigation will be done.Denman Falls was named by Ben Longmire for A.H. Denman, a photographer from Tacoma instrumental in early documentation of the park.