The 10 Best Waterfalls in Washington

The state waterfall: 198 feet of the Palouse River dropping into an Ice Age flood canyon. Rim overlooks only — canyon access is permanently closed — and spring snowmelt is its season.

268 feet, thirty minutes from Seattle, wheelchair-accessible upper deck, lit after dark — a million and a half visitors a year come for a reason.

Rainier's roadside stunner: 188 feet of the Paradise River with a rainbow on schedule most sunny afternoons. No timed entry in 2026 — just the $30 gate.

The park's big earned falls — 300-plus feet of Van Trump Creek at the top of a 1,200-foot climb. Wait for July melt-out.

The most photographed composition in the Northwest: a 72-foot falls with Rainier's summit filling the sky behind it, a paved stroll from Paradise.

The Sol Duc splits into channels and drops sideways into a mossy slot — Olympic's signature falls, an easy 1.6-mile old-growth walk.

Ninety feet of ribbon falls above Lake Crescent, reached through cathedral old growth — the Peninsula's easiest big payoff.

Three tiers of the Wallace River with Skykomish valley views, on the Woody Trail's honest 1,300-foot climb. Cabins at the trailhead if you make a weekend of it.

The I-90 family classic: a flat-ish mile to a 70-foot falls you can practically touch. Northwest Forest Pass, not Discover — the most-ticketed mix-up on the pass.

A two-tier falls in a dripping moss amphitheater, five minutes off a gravel road, free, and somehow still half-secret.