Sydney Falls

Sydney Falls is the major waterfall of Kotsuck Creek, situated in a deep canyon about a mile due west of Highway 123 in the eastern part of Mount Rainier National Park. The falls begin as Kotsuck Creek sheets out over a broad shelf of bedrock and glides about 50 feet down a rolling ledge. The creek reverts to a nearly level profile in a concave manor, and then immediately spreads out over a broad dome-shaped rock, splitting into two or three channels depending on how much water is present, and plunges then veils an additional 140 feet into a deep canyon, with the falls constricting narrower and narrower as it gets closer to its base. Though not exceptionally deep, the canyon below the falls is constricted enough that it sees a considerable amount of snow accumulate from winter avalanches falling from the cliffs to the south, and often this snow will linger near the bottom of the falls well into the summer months when the rest of the area has melted out entirely. About 300 linear feet downstream from the base of Sydney Falls is a 40-foot tall lower falls, which unfortunately cannot be seen from either the Owyhigh Lakes Trail or from the off-trail viewpoint where Sydney Falls itself is best viewed. It may be possible to scramble off-trail further downstream to reach a view of this lower fall, but the canyon in the vicinity is still dangerously steep and may be quite hazardous to navigate in hopes of a vista.This waterfall has been more commonly referred to as Kotsuck Creek Falls because no other name has been attached to it in recent years. However dating back to at least 1919, the official Rules and Regulations guide to Mount Rainier National Park published by the Department of the Interior explicitly denotes a Sydney Falls as occurring 9.1 miles from the Ohanapecosh Ranger Station along the East Side trail, and that distance just so happens to be a spot on corrolation to this waterfall. The name Sydney Falls seems to have persisted in these guides published by the Department of the Interior, but never seems to have been adopted elsewhere, for whatever reason. Presumably once the guides were no longer published the name fell into obscurity. The name Kotsuck is derived from a Chinook Jargon word meaning "middle". Why this name was applied to this particular stream is a bit curious though. Given that where Kotsuck, Chinook and Deer Creeks all converge, Kotsuck Creek is not the middle stream - though it may instead be referring to the fact that Kotsuck Creek is the middle drainage along the northeast east flank of Mount Rainier, with the Ohanapecosh and White Rivers to the south and north respectively (this is purely speculation however).