Trappers Peak Falls

Trappers Peak Falls is a small volume but tantalizingly tall waterfall found just west of Newhalem in the Ross Lake National Recreation Area. The unnamed stream producing the falls drains from a tiny basin on the southern arm of Trappers Peak, which the Thornton Lakes Trail crosses several times as it ascends the ridge. The falls occur much further down the mountainside, where the stream empties into the Skagit Gorge proper via a 304-foot tall chain of cascades and plunges. Unfortunately, though the falls are quite easy to access they are very difficult to see thanks to an extreme level of foreshortening and thick stands of trees which surround the falls and prevent views from further away from the falls as well. Because of the small drainage, the falls likely will run dry by mid-August in most years, if not earlier, but may retain a trickle throughout much of the summer in cooler and wetter years.