Wallace Falls State Park in winter, hours and trail snow

Wallace Falls State Park, outside Gold Bar on US 2, is open for day visits from 8 a.m. to dusk year round, as of October 2026, by Washington State Parks' own page, and parking takes a Discover Pass: $45 for the year or $10 for a day. From Enumclaw it is about 74 miles, just under two hours without traffic by OpenStreetMap routing. The Washington Trails Association (WTA) lists the hike to the Upper Falls at 5.6 miles round trip with 1,300 feet of climbing, and hikers' reports from past winters describe mud, rain-fed water and, on some days, an inch or two of snow high on the trail.

The river is not named for anyone called Wallace. State Parks says it takes its name from Joe and Sarah Kwayaylsh, Skykomish homesteaders whose allotment lay below the falls, and that the family name was "misspelled and mispronounced as" Wallace. The falls themselves passed through a 1965 law that could not force a sale, a timber company that would not sell, and a 1971 purchase of 513 acres for $425,000 before they became a park.

Is Wallace Falls State Park open in winter?

The park page lists hours of 8 a.m. to dusk all year, and the State Parks Winter Schedule, read on October 28, 2026, marks Wallace Falls open for camping and day use. The park's 2024 brochure splits the year, 6:30 a.m. to dusk from April 1 to September 30 and 8 a.m. to dusk from October 1 to March 31, so both agree on 8 a.m. in winter.

Two hikers' trip reports show what that means at the gate. One reached the trailhead at 7:30 a.m. on December 27, 2025, found the gate closed and learned it opens at 8. Another, on December 19, 2025, saw signs asking visitors to leave by 4:45 p.m. and could not tell whether the gate is locked then; the State Parks page gives dusk with no clock time. For scale, timeanddate.com puts Seattle's sunset on November 3, 2026 at 4:48 p.m., with civil twilight, the fading light after sunset, ending at 5:20 p.m. Daylight saving time ends on November 1 in 2026, and Gold Bar sits farther east against the foothills, so its times differ by a few minutes.

The alerts box on the park page, read the same day, held one notice and no closure: a Level 2 burn ban posted September 18, 2026, limiting wood fires to designated fire pits. Camping is first-come, first-served all year, the five cabins take reservations all year, and the backcountry sites at Wallace and Jay lakes are open but weather dependent, so State Parks says to call (360) 793-0420.

How far is Wallace Falls from Enumclaw?

About 74 miles, or 117 minutes with no traffic, from downtown Enumclaw to the park's coordinates, by the OSRM routing service, which runs on OpenStreetMap data, queried October 28, 2026. It runs north on SR 169 through Maple Valley, then I-405, SR 522 and US 2 east to Gold Bar. Traffic can add to that. From US 2 in Gold Bar, WTA's directions turn onto 1st Street, then May Creek Road, and bear left at a Y-junction 1.3 miles up to reach the lot at 14503 Wallace Lake Road. For falls much closer to home, try our guide to waterfalls near Enumclaw.

Do you need a Discover Pass, and where do you park?

A Discover Pass is required to park there. State Parks' Discover Pass page lists the annual pass at $45 and the one-day pass at $10, and one pass covers two vehicles but works for only one at a time. WTA says a dispenser in the lot sells passes. Both prices are written into state law, the annual pass in RCW 79A.80.020 and the day pass in RCW 79A.80.030, and the state's Office of Financial Management reviews them every four years. Under RCW 79A.80.080 the penalty for not displaying a pass in the windshield is $99, cut to $59 with proof of purchase within 15 days.

Free days are the exception. State law lets the State Parks director designate up to 12 a year, and the 2026 list on the Discover Pass site ends with Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2026. They cover day-use parking only. Our Mount Si guide explains the same pass at a trailhead run by a different agency.

Parking is the other limit. State Parks says the lot is "usually full by 11 a.m. on weekends" and links a live camera of it. It also asks visitors not to park along "the narrow county road leading to the park entrance," because roadside cars block neighbors' driveways. Hikers' reports vary, from a nearly empty lot at 9 a.m. on December 13, 2025 to about half full at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 2, 2026.

How long is the Wallace Falls hike?

WTA lists 5.6 miles round trip, 1,300 feet of gain, a high point of 1,500 feet and a moderate difficulty rating. State Parks calls it a 2.8-mile hike to the top, which matches WTA's description of a path that ends at the Upper Falls 2.8 miles from the trailhead. By WTA, the Woody Trail reaches the Lower Falls picnic area about 2 miles in, the Middle Falls viewpoint a little under half a mile beyond, and the Upper Falls after a half mile of switchbacks, the steepest grade on the trail.

State Parks says the largest of the three falls drops 265 feet, and its brochure gives that figure for the Middle Falls. WTA counts nine falls where State Parks describes a three-tiered one, so this guide sticks to the lower, middle and upper viewpoints. A WTA report from October 26, 2026 put the Lower Falls at 35 to 45 minutes for most people, with 10 to 20 more to the Middle Falls and 15 to 25 beyond. A March 2, 2026 report logged about two and a half hours for 6.5 miles.

Is there snow on the Wallace Falls trail in winter?

State Parks posts no snow report for the park, so the dated record is hikers' WTA reports, which are individual accounts, not condition ratings. On December 27, 2025 one hiker found one to two inches of fresh snow, thin enough that spikes or poles were not required, thicker above the Middle Falls and slushier as the day went on. Two days later, on December 29, a hiker found compact snow and ice on the last stretch to the Upper Falls and ice on some bridges, and said trekking poles helped. By January 3, 2026 another called the trail "a little slippery and muddy." By January 19, 2026 a third found the snow gone and a bit of frost. On March 10, 2026 one hiker reported about an inch between the Middle and Upper Falls, and another found the last quarter mile before the Upper Falls slushy and slippery.

Those reports describe snow that came and went within days on a trail whose high point is about 1,500 feet. They are not a promise of what any visit will look like, and none of them makes the trail safe in snow or ice.

Does Wallace Falls close for storms?

It has. State Parks said in a December 6, 2024 press release that the storm of November 19, 2024, which it called the Bomb Cyclone, forced it to close Wallace Falls and Squak Mountain State Park. "More than 170 trees fell along the main trail at Wallace Falls State Park near Goldbar," it said, and a rockslide hit the Middle Falls viewpoint. It asked visitors to postpone trips. No State Parks page opened for this guide gives a reopening date.

Rain is different. During the December 2025 atmospheric river, one hiker on December 10 found the Wallace River louder than ever before but the trail only wet, and another on December 25 wrote that the drive and the hike were unaffected by the flooding. Our atmospheric river guide explains how those storms are rated. Closures appear in the park page's alerts box and on State Parks' statewide alerts page.

Can you bring a dog to Wallace Falls?

Dogs are allowed on a leash at all times, State Parks says, and horses are not. Its page is blunt about why: "A trip down the falls would be fatal for your pet." WTA adds that unleashed dogs have been swept over the falls and that the fine is strictly enforced. On December 27, 2025 a hiker described tracks near the Small Falls trail that the hiker took for a cougar's; the identification is that hiker's own. Our cougar sightings guide covers what the state wildlife agency advises.

Why is the river called Wallace, and who got the falls?

By State Parks' history, the name is a misreading of Kwayaylsh, and WTA gives the same origin. State Parks places the park in Coast Salish territory and counts members of the Tulalip Tribes among the descendants. The federal government granted the land holding the falls to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1901, and it passed to the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. That is the same railroad whose main line ran through Enumclaw from 1887 to 1900, as our Northern Pacific piece tells it.

Governor Daniel J. Evans signed House Bill 74 on March 20, 1965, directing State Parks to create a park, but the bill removed the power to take land by eminent domain, and Weyerhaeuser would not sell the falls. The power was restored in 1967, and in 1971 the state bought 513 acres including the falls for $425,000. The park was dedicated on May 13, 1978, and its main trail was named the Woody Trail for Senator Frank Woody, in office from 1973 until his death in 1977.

Before you go

Open three pages on the morning. The Wallace Falls park page carries the alerts box, the hours and the live parking camera. The Winter Schedule lists what is open. WTA's Wallace Falls page has the trip reports, which should be read by date. Hours, prices and free days were read on October 28, 2026 and are State Parks' to change, so recheck them. For another winter trail with its own pass question, see our Rattlesnake Ledge guide.