Victor Falls

Victor Falls is located within the city limits of Bonney Lake. From the junction of State Route 167 and Highway 410 in Sumner, go east on 410 into Bonney Lake for 4.7 miles, then turn right (south) onto Sky Island Drive E. Follow Sky Island for 1.6 miles to its intersection with Rhodes Lake Road, then turn left. Follow Rhodes Lake Road for another 3/4 mile to a large parking area lined with a wooden fence on the right side of the road adjacent to a house (there may or may not be a sign for the park). Trails lead from the parking area to a fenced viewpoint overlooking the falls in just a few yards.Victor Falls is one of the few significant low land waterfalls to be found in the Puget Sound metropolitan area. The falls occur as Fennel Creek plunges over an escarpment carved into a thick deposit of sedimentary rock, plunging 68 feet in a broad curtain of water. Both below and above the falls the creek flows more placidly through a valley thickly covered in brush and small tree growth. The existence of a waterfall of the size of Victor Falls at an elevation so close to sea level in the Puget Sound Basin can be attributed to the violent past of Mount Rainier. The falls are formed where Fennel Creek runs across a resistant layer of mudflow deposit which was emplaced by the Osceola Mudflow which occured about 5,600 years ago during an eruption of Mount Rainier which saw a portion of the northeast flank of the mountain collapse. The resulting lahar traveled all the way down the White River valley and emptied into the South Valley, and is thought to be responsible for redirecting the White River from emptying into Puget Sound via the Duwamish River to its current course of merging with the Puyallup River in Sumner. Because the falls are formed essentially by thickly compacted mud, it will likely be a geologically relatively short-lived waterfall.
The exact size of the basin of Fennel Creek is difficult to determine, but the drainage appears to cover an area of at least 8 square miles. Given that none of this area is situated more than 700 feet above sea level however, the amount of water in the creek will be directly proportional to the amount of precipitation which the area has received in the immediate past weeks or months. During the winter the falls flow with ample vigor, however during the summer the volume of the creek will be reduced considerably, potentially being reduced to just a trickle in dry years (it doesn't seem likely that it would dy out entirely).The falls were named after Victor Johns, whose father visited the northwest and named the falls for his son, who died at a young age, prior to moving to the Sumner area.