Freeway Falls

RATING - 6.5


VR - .9 (Tiny) HR - 5.0 SR - 4/20


TYPE OF APPROACH - Roadside

DIFFICULTY - Very Easy

LOCATION - Lake Samish Area

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 95'

WIDTH - 10'

DIRECTIONS - This little waterfall is located right next to I-5 at Milepost 245 just south of Bellingham and the bottom section can be seen from the car. You must be going northbound to see it. It's really not worth the trouble of getting out of the car usually so just take a quick peak as you cruise by.

I've gone back and forth on this waterfall over the past few years. I've called it Samish Falls, 245 Falls, Lower Padden Falls (after someone incorrectly told me it was Padden Creek), and then back to Samish Falls. From the freeway, you can see the lower, cascading section of the falls all year long. I recently noticed a plunging upper section so I had to check it out and decided that with that drop, the falls was just barely worthy to make it on the site.


The creek begins its drop towards I-5 with a 40' plunge directly under an old work bridge. Below here it cascades over some boulders for a few feet before hitting the bedrock once again and cascading down for another 35'. The total height of the drop is 95'. This is a small creek and during the summer it isn't much to look at. Actually, it isn't much to look at all year long but if you're driving north and want to get out for a minute to stretch your legs, this might be worth a quick stop.