...a "brand new" waterfall! (If one can consider "brand new" a fall that tens of thousands of people drive past every year, that is.)

Last Thursday, I was driving to Mount Rainier to try to get some images of the mountain in autumn. On the way down, I was taking State Route 123 over Cayuse Pass. As you drive through the forest, there are a number of gaps in the foliage along the east side of the route, which is built along the base of a Rainier foothill. Most of these gaps are just for creeks (running or dry) or rockslides, but occasionally, you'll see a small waterfall along the side of the road, nestled in one of those gaps. For example, last year, I "discovered" a fall that turned out to be Zigzag Falls (which I covered in this post). But I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the real waterfalls (as opposed to the slanted-creeks-that-kind-of-look-like-waterfalls) along 123. Therefore, it was a surprise when I turned to look in one of those gaps about a mile and a half past Cayuse, and saw a 15-to-20-foot "real" waterfall that I had never noticed before. Fortunately, there was a pullout nearby, so I was able to stop the car and get a photo of this new discovery.

Upon returning home, I checked, and found this fall listed in neither the Waterfall Lover's Guide to the Pacific Northwest nor the Waterfalls Northwest database, the two most-reliable sources for waterfall information up here. I contacted Bryan Swan, the owner of Waterfalls Northwest, with a description and photo of the fall. I got back his reply last night -- this is definitely a waterfall he himself had found, and named, while hiking through the area, but one that wasn't in his database yet -- it was due to be added in the next few months, once he could get a photo of it himself. Interestingly, he says that the portion visible from the road is only the lowest part of the fall, and that it actually continues up the hillside quite a distance, so the height might be in the hundred-plus foot range rather than the smaller size I guessed.

At any rate, since this waterfall has apparently never appeared in any reference source yet, I hereby present to you Seymour Peak Falls:



I hope to get back there when Cayuse reopens next spring, when the water should be running a lot higher. Maybe I'll be able to find a vantage point to get the entire fall, instead of just the lowest levels seen here.