Lower Box Mountain Lakes Falls

Lower Box Mountain Lake Falls is a surprisingly decent waterfall which occurs along the unnamed stream draining the Box Mountain Lakes on the northwestern end of Lime Ridge, just inside the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Topographic maps show the stream draining the lakes running parallel to the Suiattle River for its last three-quarters of a mile, however instead at a point where it closely approaches the cliffs lining the river, the creek seems to have jumped a low divide which restrained the flow of the creek, and it now instead skips down a 143-foot tall, three stepped waterfall set amid lofty old growth timber. The upper tier of the falls drops 90 feet as the first and largest section of the falls, followed by two smaller drops of 30 and 23 feet respectively. The falls twist slightly to the right as they fall, which makes viewing the whole series collectively from the base difficult - a heavily foreshortened perspective also hurts somewhat. Though the falls can be partially seen through the trees from easy-to-access locations across the river, in order to see the falls clearly it is necessary to cross the raging Suiattle River. Fording is absolutely out of the question due to the volume, depth, and rapid flow of the water, so anyone wishing to get close must cross using a log spanning from bank to bank. This seems to only be possible when the river is running lower during the cooler months of the year. We surveyed the falls in April 2017 and were able to cross safely on a large log, however the same log was inaccessible a month later when the river had risen several feet due to the added spring melt. Do not make any attempt to cross the river if you have to get wet in doing so, it's far too dangerous.