Sarvant Falls

Sarvant Falls is accessed from the Summerland Trail in the northeast part of Mount Rainier National Park. Turn off Highway 410 onto the White River Road (toward Sunrise an the White River Campground) 4-1/2 miles south of the northeastern park entrance. Continue along the White River Road for 4.3 miles to the bridge over Fryingpan Creek and the adjacent trailhead for Summerland and park. Follow the Summerland Trail, which becomes the Wonderland Trail shortly, for just under 2 miles to a wide open viewpoint along the trail (about 1/4-mile past Middle Fryingpan Creek Falls) where Sarvant Falls can be seen high across the valley.Fryingpan Creek is a large tributary to the White River on the northeast side of Mount Rainier. It is not normally thought of as an area of the park to visit to find waterfalls, but the deep valley combined with the high relief of the ridge between Panhandle Gap and the Cowlitz Chimneys resulted in the formation of several small glaciers, collectively referred to as the Sarvant Glacier. While most of the glaciers have melted away, the largest remnants feed small to modest streams that cascade steeply down to meet Fryingpan Creek. Sarvant Falls occurs along one such stream where it plunges and skips about 650 feet down the side of the valley in several tiers, the largest of which falls about 230 feet alone.
Sarvant Falls is a bit of a difficult waterfall to pin down in terms of consistency. The basin which the falls drain from encompasses and area of only about one-eighth of a square mile, but it's also a north-facing basin (so it remains more shaded and is less prone to snow melting) entirely above 6,000 feet in elevation. Coupled with the fact that the lobe of the Sarvant Glacier occupying this basin isn't entirely gone yet, and the result should be a waterfall that flows at least modestly for the duration of the summer. However we do expect the volume of the stream to drop considerably by the autumn months, and certainly when the temperatures are cooler.