About Clear Creek Falls
Clear Creek Falls was a convenient roadside stop near White Pass, which overlooked Rimrock Lake as well as the eastern slope of Mt Rainier.
This waterfall, which flowed on the North Fork Clear Creek was said to drop a total of 300ft, but I was only able to see a fraction of that from the official lookouts.
These lookouts only revealed a partial view of an upper tier and a more complete view of the main lower tier as well as a distant contextual view towards Rimrock Lake.
I’m sure there are more tiers or cascades in between these lookouts given how deep the canyon harboring Clear Creek is, but I’d imagine a drone would be required to view the entirety of Clear Creek Falls.
To get the most out of my visit to the viewpoint area, I went upstream from the parking lot (see directions below) to get the partial view of the upper drop of Clear Creek Falls.
Once I had my fill of this lookout, I had a choice of walking the well-defined path behind the restroom or along the fence preventing me from the cliffs.
The lookout close to the picnic table and a tall tree revealed the main drop of Clear Creek Falls, but I felt the most complete view of it was a little further downstream.
Further downstream from the lookout of the main drop of the falls, the path ended at a signed lookout with an open vista facing Rimrock Lake.
Overall, I spent roughly 30 minutes to take it all in, but in hindsight, I probably could have driven a little further east on the US12 towards a lookout around a bend that would have given me a more distant but contextual view of Clear Creek Falls.
Finally, in terms of lighting, I also should have visited this overlook in the morning since Clear Creek Falls faced east.
Authorities
Clear Creek Falls resides in the Wenatchee National Forest between Packwood and Natches in Yakima County, Washington. It is administered by the USDA Forest Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
The Clear Creek Falls Overlook is accessed from the US12 between Packwood and Natches.
From Packwood, I just drove about 21.5 miles east on the US12 (passing by a scenic view of Mt Rainier at around 15.6 miles and White Pass at around 19.6 miles).
This drive took me around 30 minutes.
From Natches, I would drive west on the US12 for about 36.5 miles, and it’s said to be about a 45-minute drive.
As for geographical context, Packwood is about 73 miles (about 90 minutes drive) west of Yakima, 70 miles (under 2 hours drive) south of Puyallup, 108 miles (over 2 hours drive) south of Seattle, and 141 miles (over 2 hours drive) northeast of Portland, Oregon.
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Exploring the upper waterfall from three different spots as well as its context
Brief sweep from the first of the overlooks of the lower waterfall
Downstream to upstream sweep of the lower waterfall from the most frontal view that I could get
Longer video starting with downstream view towards some lake in the distance before going up towards the most frontal view of the lower drop of Clear Creek Falls that I could get
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