Hiking Murmut Falls

Olympic Peninsula Travelog #3
Brinnon, WA - Fri, 3 Sep 2021. 2:30pm.

We're making our way out to Olympic National Park today but we're taking our time about it. There are plenty of worthy hikes before we get there. We had a nice little stroll in a city park at Tumwater Falls this morning. After lunch today at a roadside dive bar we hiked to Murhut Falls.

The trailhead felt remote, a drive of almost 8 miles on a pair of forest service roads. Still, 4-5 cars were parked there when we arrived.

Driving to the trailhead entailed a lot of "up" from the last river crossing. Then the trail itself was up, up, up for the first 1/2 mile. "Waterfalls usually aren't on the tops of mountains," I quipped. But we weren't going that far up. The trail leveled off then descended into a narrow valley where we could hear the sound of crashing water from around the bend.

As we rounded the final corner and the falls came into view we were astonished by their size.



Murmut Falls drops in two tiers. The lower tier is the smaller of the two and is still about 40' high. Upper Falls is a drop of over 100' down a rock face before a final drop across the mouth of a cave.

Yes, we thought about climbing up to explore that cave! Another pair of hikers were already up there doing that when we arrived. There was no trail to that level, though, and the route we'd have to follow looked extremely tough and dangerous, climbing hand-and-foot over wet boulders and fallen trees. So we enjoyed the falls from two viewpoints near the bottom. There was still more than enough beauty to enjoy.

Rocky Brook Falls

Olympic Peninsula Travelog #4
Brinnon, WA - Fri, 3 Sep 2021. 4pm.

After hiking Murmut Falls this afternoon we drove back out to US-101, drove a few miles north on 101, then turned west on another back road to drive to the trailhead for Rocky Brook Falls. Yes, it's the same US-101 that's a major freeway two miles from our house. No, it wouldn't have made sense to "Get on 101 and drive" here. For one, the shortest route is still almost 850 miles. Two, sticking on 101 would be way longer than that as the road is routed through a lot of coastal sections (basically all of the Oregon coast, for example) which are slow and winding.

Rocky Brook Falls's size was surprising. We began from a barely-marked parking area near a bridge over a small creek and started walking upstream past a fenced-off building from an old power plant. Then, moments later— BAM!



Rocky Brook tumbles down a bare stone cliff more than 100' high. It's like someone took a waterfall from a bigger creek in a more mountainous setting and transported it here.