Necktie Falls by Wahkeena Falls

[Owl-Eyes]

Hello!
This is kind of late, but I'll still share.
Two weeks ago now, my dad and I went out for another off trail waterfall. This falls didn't sound too hard to get to. We drove to Wahkeena Falls and hiked up to Lemmon's Point. From there we started looking for our trail downward. We saw the trail very shortly and it was quite obvious. We were surprised that we had never taken notice of it before. The trail lead down to the creek, and we saw this 20ish foot waterfall just upstream.

Upper Necktie Falls

We saw guard rail just downstream from where we were and followed it to the top of the falls. We could see the falls from above, but the guard rail kept going. Looking down, the railing went down a really steep slope that appeared to drop off with the falls. We almost turned around, but the slope had steps carved in so we decided to go down a couple of steps to see if the trail did fall over the top of the falls. After going down a few of the steps we saw that the trail actually didn't fall off the cliff but turned sharply to the right and leveled out. Feeling more secure, we followed the trail all the way to the viewpoint where we could see Necktie Falls from straight on. It was a very unique falls and we gave it a 4.8/5 star ranking.

Necktie Falls

[Peder]

I have those falls marked on my GPS, but I still need to go. thank you for the reminder.

[greenjello85]

Nice trip, I love the cross over falls.

[Sore Feet]

It's kind of interesting how this propagated. There actually is no Necktie Falls - what you're seeing from the fenced viewpoint is the top of Wahkeena Falls itself. Back in the early 1900s when that trail and viewpoint were actually maintained, that part of the falls was known as "The Necktie" or "The Necktie of Wahkeena". Somehow at some point in time it became assumed that it was a different waterfall, probably because it's not exactly obvious what you're looking at given how obstructed Wahkeena is when viewed from below. Greg Plumb then made the assumption in his "Waterfall Lover's Guide" books that the name Necktie applied to the smaller - clearly separate - waterfall upstream because (presumably) it was referenced in certain older literature but there was never any sort of signage to indicate what the name actually applied to. I've been referring to the smaller one as Little Necktie Falls for years now in homage.

[Rustygoat]

I've been referring to the smaller one as Little Necktie Falls for years now in homage.

I was wondering about the naming on the small fall. I had seen an old picture of the top of Wahkeena labeled "The Necktie of Wahkenna" years before I ever saw it in person. Thanks for the info Bryan!


Owl-Eyes....thanks for the post. It is nice to see that others visit that old viewpoint.

[Owl-Eyes]

I forget where, but one of the places that I read called it "The Necktie of Wahkeena Falls," but I could see how someone would think it's a separate falls. From the bottom of Wahkeena it's impossible to make out the necktie shape. Yeah, the upper part should have a name, just to avoid confusion if anything else. There were numerous blogs and reports that called the upper part "Necktie Falls" even though it's obviously not the real deal.

[Splintercat]

It's on a fairly well-known Gifford postcard from back in the day:



The presence of the railing in this photo suggests that it was installed as early as the 1910s, when a lot of these Gifford postcards were popular... but could be later, maybe a CCC project? Not sure -- I haven't really dug into the history of Wahkeena.

Tom

[Don Nelsen]

Tom, wow! - that is a great photo! good find. thanks,

dn