Marten Creek Falls

Marten Creek Falls is found along the Snoqualmie Lake Trail in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie area near North Bend. Exit Interstate 90 at Edgewick Road east of North Bend, turn north past the Truck Stop, then turn right onto Dorothy Lake Road, which becomes Taylor River Road, and then ultimately the forest service maintained Middle Fork Snoqualmie Road #56. Follow the Middle Fork Road - which turns to gravel at the Mailbox Peak trailhead at the 2.9 mile mark, and becomes notoriously bumpy thereafter for much of the year - for 12 miles to the bridge over the Taylor River. Just past the bridge stay straight where a sign points to the Snoqualmie Lake Trail and go another half-mile to the end of the road at the trailhead. Marten Creek is encountered after 2.7 miles of easy hiking along the Snoqualmie Lake (Taylor River) Trail. To view the upper tiers of the falls, find the unofficial Marten Lake Trail which heads off to the left shortly before reaching the bridge over Marten Creek, and follow it upstream for less than 1/5 of a mile - both the middle and upper tiers can be viewed from just off the Marten Lake Trail, but the best views will require some minor scrambling to get clear of trees and bushes.Marten Creek Falls is the first and smallest of the major waterfalls encountered along the Snoqualmie Lake Trail. At cursory glance all Marten Creek seems to do is slide about 15 feet down a small sluice immediately above the footbridge along the trail, but for those paying attention when approaching the bridge the real prize will be visible through the trees just upstream. Tucked just around the corner from view of the trail is a fantastically unique 51-foot tall waterslide, where the creek accelerates back and forth down a swishing chute then leaps up into the air in an arc as it hits the pool below. Unfortunately more recently some large trees have fallen into the pool at the base of the falls, making the scene a bit more cluttered.
Immediately upstream the second and largest of the three drops can be found where the creek makes a much more straight-forward 54-foot tall drop which begins as a broad slide that funnels into a narrow and powerful plunge into a small pool. Though this drop can be partially glimpsed through the trees from the base of the falls, traveling off trail a bit is necessary to view it well. Finally the third drop upstream is a 36-foot tall plunge in a narrow alcove in a small gorge a short distance further upstream from the second drop. Like the lowest fall, several trees have recently fallen in front of this drop and while it can still be seen fairly clearly, it is no longer even remotely photogenic.
Though Marten Creek is one of the largest tributaries to the Taylor River, fed by a constant flow of water from Marten Lake about a mile upstream, the creek does lose considerable volume since there is no permanent ice feeding the drainage basin. The falls will roar to life through the spring and early summer months, but by autumn will be much more graceful and gentle than powerful and roaring - though given the unique shape of the lower half of the falls this isn't necessarily a bad thing.