Hike to the Old Growth in Twin Falls State Park

An easy and accessible trip to some Great Old Growth

Twin Falls State Park sits just South of I-90 at Exit 34 ("Truck Town" or for you true lovers of this site it is also the exit for the Middle Fork). Take Exit 34 and head South (turn right if coming from Seattle). Take the road to the left just before the bridge (there is a small sign but I always miss it). Drive to the end of this road and park at the obvious trailhead by the river. As of 2008, no payment is required to park at this state park.

You can see a whole variety of old growth with a simple two mile, fairly flat round trip trail that children and non-hikers will enjoy year around. The trail follows the river for a while in some nice, older trees and then heads up a hill to the first viewpoint of the Falls. From the bench vista, the old growth sits to your left (the Falls are right in front of you).

Continue your hike down the hill towards the river and you will see a large spruce in front of you.

Large Spruce: Survey (200) at 218' tall

Just past the spruce you come across the big Douglas Fir. Now, this is a big tree by any measure and well worth the trip. It's hard to imagine entire forests of these just 100 years ago. I guess a special thanks to Gared Ditmar whose Eagle Scout project in 1993, according to the sign, resulted in the nice fence around this giant. It's a good reminder of how sensitive these old trees can be. A quick look around will reveal a host of old, dead giants that are now snags. Do your best to keep this one from joining them. (My rule for approaching old trees is I only do it in two cases: first is to take a measurement where I use a throw bag to minimize being close to the tree or, second, I will go close to more remote trees where there is no sign of human approach, such as a trail)

This big fir measures out as (Survey 200): 218 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter (yes, it seems an odd coincidence that the two trees here are the same size and I'm sure some real tree hunter with a laser will prove me wrong, but until then, there it is). You may hear all sorts of sizes for this tree. There are references on the web to it being 14' in diameter and a passing hiker even told me he had heard it was the tallest tree in Washington (it's not, it's over 100' short for that). Big trees seem to get quickly exagerated on the web which can diminish the true giants. All the same, this is a big, beautiful tree. So have your special someone lean against the fence and snap a picture.

Going on you see various other big trees including some large cedars. Once again, this trail shows its worth with three species of big trees all in one place. The only other one I measured was above the big switch back after the big fir (top of the rise). It measured (scout 100) 185 feet tall.

So enjoy the last quarter mile with the last real big tree being practically on the trail at the top of the stairs after the last bridge. And, by the way, there are a couple of nice water falls to your left and right, but this site is about big old trees....