Dutch Henry Falls

To access Dutch Henry Falls, take Highway 2 east from downtown Waterville for 21.5 miles, or west for 16.75 miles from the junction of Highways 2 and 17 at the western end of the Dry Falls Dam at Banks Lake, and turn north onto Jameson Lake Road (signed). Continue for just under 4 miles along Jameson Lake Road and watch for a trail marked by a stock gate and a small sign board. An easy trail leads from the road for a quarter mile across the valley to the base of the falls - watch for cow pies along the trail, as the whole valley is open range land.Dutch Henry Falls is an ephemeral waterfall found tucked in an alcove along the western wall of Moses Coulee near the south end of Jameson Lake. The falls drop a clean 110 feet over the ubiquitous Columbia River basalt formation that permeates the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington. Because of the low volume of the stream in Dutch Henry Draw, the creek seeps underground shortly below the pool at the base of the falls, and if wind should pick up through Moses Coulee the water may be dashed away into a fine mist, never even making it to the base of the falls.
The basin which Dutch Henry Draw drains from is fairly large in size, but this part of Washington is so arid and receives so little precipitation that the falls rarely flow for more than 3 months out of the year. We surveyed the site in April 2017 a few weeks after a significant snow fall event and found just a trickle of water present. Unless one visits immediately following heavy prolonged rain, or within a week or two of significant snow melt, chances are the falls will be just a trickle - if not dry.