Perfection Falls

Drive North from Hoquiam for about 25 miles, or South from Lake Quinault about 14 miles, along US 101 to Donkey Creek Road, which is signed for the Wynoochee Lake Recreation Area. Turn onto Donkey Creek Road and continue for just over 6 miles to where the falls can be partially seen through the trees to the left of the road (it is difficult to spot if the trees have sprouted leaves for the season). The formerly obvious path to the base of the falls has been more or less destroyed recently due to landslides, road repair, and several large fallen trees.Perfection Falls is the upper of two consecutive sets of waterfalls along Donkey Creek found near its confluence with the Humptulips River. The falls drop a clean 19 feet over a ledge of what appears to be igneous bedrock flanked with bluffs of Sandstone above and on either side of the stream's channel. Depending on the volume of water present in the creek, the ledge may be overwhelmed by its flow, creating a single curtain of water which can stretch to 25-30 feet across, or it may split into two parallel plunges, or even a single narrow plunge late in the dry part of the year. Donkey Creek drains a basin which covers approximately 6.6 square miles in area upstream from the falls. The otherwise modest size of the basin is augmented by the significant annual precipitation which falls on this part of Washington State, much of which is seasonal, and as a result the volume of the stream at the waterfall can fluctuate wildly as the seasons progress. Strongest flows will be present during the November to March period, while a greatly reduced flow should be anticipated from July to mid-October.The name of this waterfall seems to have originated from the local whitewater kayaking community, and the name has since bled out into general colloquial usage.