Sluiskin Falls

Located in the Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park. Because of the often-crowded nature of the Paradise parking lots, this waterfall is best accessed as follows: In Mount Rainier National Park, follow the Nisqually Road to Paradise, and continue to the main lot at the visitors center. Do not park here, but instead begin following the one-way Paradise Valley Road, which leaves Paradise heading downhill (cars will often be seen parked along the periphery of this road when the parking lots fill up in the summer). At the bottom of the first long hill, you'll cross the Paradise River, immediately after which is a large parking area on the right; park here. The 4th Crossing Trail begins across the street from the parking area; follow it uphill for 1/3 of a mile to the Skyline Trail. Turn right and proceed another 8/10 of a mile to the Paradise Glacier Trail, but stay left on the Skyline Trail, and cross the Paradise River. After the trail climbs up a short hill, find any of several unguarded viewpoints looking down on the falls.Sluiskin Falls is the best waterfall in the Paradise basin. The falls spray 155 feet down the headwall of the valley. Many sources have cited the falls as dropping 300 feet, however topographic maps of the area prove this to be a physical impossibility (we have no idea where this figure could have come from) and our survey efforts simply reinforced this with a firm number. Unfortunately, there is no way to get up close to the falls. The ravine below the falls is lined with trees, which prevent viewing the falls from below, and as off-trail travel isn't allowed in Paradise Valley, so scrambling to the base of the falls is out of the question. The falls can be seen by looking into the Paradise Basin from almost anywhere along the Paradise Loop Road (after the visitors center parking lot). The Paradise River fluctuates greatly at this point in its run, and thus, the falls don't appear nearly as impressive late in the year.Sluiskin Falls was named by General Hazard Stevens and Philemon Beecher Van Trump for Sluiskin, a local Indian who guided them part way up the first successful ascent of Mt. Rainier on August 17, 1870. Sluiskin took the two climbers approximately as far as the top of the falls, stopping there himself because the summit of the mountain was said to be inhabited by angry spirits.