Skookum Falls

500+ft of rappelling with a short approach and even shorter exit (if the river crossing permits). An exciting exposed anchor station provided moderate technicality. A good early season option, with excellent pay-to-play ratio.

From Enumclaw, drive 27 miles east on WA-410 until you reach the Skookum Falls Viewpoint on your right. Stop here to check the flow and confirm that the log spanning the river is still there. You will use this log to cross the river on the exit. Once confirmed the log is all good, park your exit vehicle(s) here. To get to the start parking, take a left (north) out of the parking area. Continue for 2.1 miles and take the first left turn onto FS-7300. Continue for 1.3 miles until the road forks. Take the left fork onto FS-7315 and continue for 1.7 miles until you see an old forest road branching off to your left. Park here (47.05556, -121.58372). Note: FS-7315 is closed and gated from December 15 to May 1. If you are running Skookum in winter or early spring, you will need to park outside the gate and hike the 1.7 miles and 900’ elevation gain to reach the turnoff for the old forest road. Follow the overgrown forest road on foot for 0.6 miles. As the road loses definition, follow the sound of water to reach the water course.

An efficient route from the end of the approach road down to the main falls is to: From here things are obvious: Note: from R4 anchor you don't have line of sight to the bottom, nor do whistle signals work well (as the only rock wall is bouncing the sound away from the anchor). So keep on top of managing rope length. Note: the original beta from the Canyoneering Northwest site stated rappel lengths of 150ft. We used at least 200ft on both the large rappels. The size of 1ft must have shrunk over the years.