Madison Falls

Olympic National Park, Washington, USA

About Madison Falls


Hiking Distance: almost roadside
Suggested Time: 10-15 minutes

Date first visited: 2011-08-21
Date last visited: 2011-08-21

Waterfall Latitude: 48.04228
Waterfall Longitude: -123.58419

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Madison Falls was probably one of the easiest waterfalls for us to visit in the state of Washington.

But despite its ease of access, this was also one of the prettier waterfalls we had seen during our time touring the Olympic Peninsula in 2011.

Olympic_Peninsula_005_08212011 - Madison Falls
Madison Falls

A very short paved walk through a lush forest led us from the well-signed trailhead (see directions below) to a viewing area at the end of the walk.

From this vantage point, we were able to see the roughly 40-50ft drop of the Madison Falls along with some fallen logs fronting its base.

The walk probably took no more than 5 minutes in each direction.

We’re not sure about this, but we swore we saw hints of additional tiers above the main visible drop of the falls.

Olympic_Peninsula_003_08212011 - Following the very easy walk leading up to the Madison Falls
Following the very easy walk leading up to the Madison Falls

If this is true, it was mostly obscured by dense vegetation, which was why we couldn’t tell for sure.

In addition to Madison Falls, I’ve also seen this waterfall referred to as Madison Creek Falls.

Authorities

Madison Falls resides in Olympic National Park near Port Angeles in Clallam County, Washington. It is administered by the National Park Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.

Olympic_Peninsula_001_08212011 - Olympic Hot Springs Road by the parking lot for Madison Falls
Olympic_Peninsula_002_08212011 - Walking past the bathrooms and onto the paved walkway leading up to Madison Falls
Olympic_Peninsula_012_08212011 - Checking out the impressive Madison Falls


To reach Madison Falls, we’ll start the driving directions from Port Angeles.

So from the town, we drove about 8 miles west on US101.

The turnoff for Elwha Valley (Olympic Hot Springs Rd) is on the left just before the US101 bridges the Elwha River.

Note that given the relatively high volume and speed of traffic on the US101, this can be a tricky spot to be making left turns both onto the Olympic Hot Springs Rd as well as back onto the US101.

Once on Olympic Hot Springs Rd, we followed this road south for another 2 miles.

There’s a big sign post for the Madison Falls parking lot on the left.

For context, Port Angeles was 82 miles (or 2.5 hours drive including a ferry ride [so it would take more time than this]) from Seattle.

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Bottom up sweep from the front of the falls

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Tagged with: olympic, national park, clallam, port angeles, washington, peninsula, waterfall, madison creek



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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