Madison Falls and Glines Canyon Overlook

Madison Creek Falls is located within Olympic National Park near the Elwha River, west of Port Angeles, Washington. A very short hike to a mossy maple and cedar lined grotto and bam, there is the 50 foot Madison Creek Falls. There is almost no hike to get to it and while I wouldn’t drive all the way out here just for the falls, there is more to do.

First we rode our bikes out the closed to cars Hot Springs Road to Glines Canyon Overlook. The road washed out about 5 years ago and has just never reopened. Perched on what was once the spillway of the Glines Canyon Dam. we took in views of the wide valley that formerly held the Lake Mills reservoir. Lake Mills formed when the Glines Canyon Dam was built between 1925 and 1927, flooding an area known at the time as Smokey Bottom. The blue green waters of the now undammed Elhwa River churn through the narrow Glines Canyon and it awesome to stand almost above it on the observation deck. Dam removal allowed the return of salmon and began the restoration of natural processes to a dynamic, wild river. Wild it is.

Back on the bikes we rode back the way we had come but turned right and climbed up to Whiskey Bend Trailhead on a narrow, winding gravel road. This allowed us to view Glines Canyon from the opposite side of the Elwha! Very cool. Once we got to the trailhead we took and break and then zoomed back down.