17 May 2023
5 am
Some of the luster came off the Salish Lodge last night, at least in the food aspect. I had 6:30 pm reservations at The Dining Room. They seated me at a table near the window although there wasn’t much of a view of anything but a closed off terrace.
The problem was not with the servers – they were very attentive. It was the food. I decided to go with the prix fixe menu.
I went with the wine pairings and started with the spring asparagus soup as the appetizer. It was just OK and you could, if you thought very hard about it, taste the asparagus. The cedar plank salmon was a total disappointment. I asked the waitress if it was wild caught and she said yes. I should have also asked if it was fresh. I swear it was from a previously frozen piece of fish. As far as the crème brûlée is concerned, I’ve had much better. My friend Holley hates crème brûlée and I can understand why with this dish. I have reservations again for this place on Thursday and I think I’ll cancel them and try their other restaurant, The Attic. Hopefully they can’t mess up a burger.
I will admit this is the quietest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. I usually complain unceasingly about noisy hotels but I think I must be the only guest on the lower (1st) floor. I don’t even hear anyone above me. Maybe no one stayed here last night other than me.
I’m still on Fort Lauderdale time. I went to bed at 8:30 pm PDT (11:30 pm EDT) and got up at 4:30 am PDT (7:30 EDT). I decided to go look at the falls at sunrise. You really couldn’t see much. A mist hung in the air below the falls.
There was so much mist that some areas of the walkway literally ran with rivulets of water. You can feel the mist from the falls, even outside my hotel room. The falls are 270 feet in height.
Of course, the falls are part of an hydroelectric power plant. A dream of Charles Baker, the plant was completed in 1899. It was the first completely underground power plant constructed in the world. In 1910, a subsequent power plant was constructed down river from the first.
Today I plan to hike the Snoqualmie Falls Trail, a 1.4 mile trail to the river level. Coming back up is the equivalent of walking upstairs to the top of a 30 story building. Pray for me.
9:20 am
God, it’s good to get back into the woods!
I made it! Even better, I made it all the way back up to the top without stopping. The total hike down and back was 1.9 miles with a 371 foot elevation gain. It took me 1 hour and 23 minutes but that was because I was stopping every few minutes to take wildflower photos.
The trail down is steep. There are a lot of 5% grades and even steeper in some areas.
Along the trail was a profusion of wildflowers and I even got to add two to my lifetime list that I had never seen in the wild before.
Once at the bottom of the trail, you could hear the Snoqualmie River roaring. At the edge of the water was the hydroelectric facility built in 1901. It has undergone several expansions and additions, the latest in 1957 and 2010.
Feeding the hydroelectric plant is water from above through two huge penstocks (pipelines).
The Snoqualmie River has a lot of rapids on it and there is a boat launch near the parking lot of Snoqualmie Falls Park for people who wish to run the rapids.
There’s a long set of stairs and walkway to the observation point of the falls.
I stopped at the entrance to Snoqualmie Falls Park on my way back up. I’ve been noticing an unusual feature in the signage. In Canada, signs are in English and French. Here at the lodge and the park, signs are in English and Snoqualmie. The Snoqualmie are a federally recognized tribe of the Snoqualmie Valley and part of the Coast Salish people.
On the way back to my room, I stopped at the registration desk and got some information about trails in the area, the tourist/historic town of Snoqualmie, and also some more waterfalls. One highly recommended falls was Franklin Falls at Snoqualmie Pass. Apparently, three days ago there was snow and some people have reported on AllTrails that it’s icy. It’s only two miles out and back to the falls. I may try that tomorrow. It means I’ll leave the lodge area and explore new terrain!
Lunch, sadly, was at The Dining Room, a buttermilk fried chicken sandwich. It was buried under an aioli, pickles and cheese so I assume it was a chicken sandwich. They were very proud of their biscuits with butter and jam and served them as a compliment to your meal but I found the biscuits hard and dry. My next calling is as a food critic.
I have a massage scheduled for 3 pm today at the lodge spa.
Stay tuned!