Coleman Falls

RATING - 46.0

VR - 4.0 (Sm/M) HR - 8.0 SR - 14/20

TYPE OF APPROACH - Trail

DIFFICULTY - Difficult

LOCATION - Swift Creek Trail

TYPE - Tiered

HEIGHT - 367'

WIDTH - 10'

GPS - N48 49' 0.92", W121 42' 43.79"

ELEVATION - 3800'

DIRECTIONS - Take the Swift Creek Trail. About a half a mile north of Qanqan Falls, keep your eyes peeled across the valley and you should see Coleman Falls plunging its way down the cliff. You might have to scramble around a little to find a clear view.

The Swift Creek area has the highest concentration of waterfalls in NW Washington. Coleman Falls is one of the best of the bunch. The creek encounters a large cliff and plunges 197' in a straight drop. The creek then continues to drop down a series of sliding cascades bringing the total height to 367'. In all likelihood, there is even more to the waterfall below there, but it was impossible to see from atop the massive cliff on my trip into the falls. To the right of the falls is a weird rock that almost looks like a sea lion or something. It's quite bizarre.

There are three ways to view the waterfall: distantly from the Lake Ann Trail, cross-valley from the Swift Creek Trail, or up close by hiking the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail and then taking a long, difficult off-trail trip to the top of the canyon. None of these three routes are particularly easy and the close-up trip is quite hazardous. This is one of those waterfalls that are absolutely amazing, but unfortunately so difficult to access that very few people will ever see them. I named Coleman Falls after Coleman Pinnacle, near where the creek begins.