Rainbow Falls State Park & Willapa Hills Trail Hike

9.6 miles of hiking • 250' elevation gain •

My wife and I both had knee issues today so we decided to try something new. I looked up the rails-to-trails hikes and found the Willapa Trail hike which can be started out of Rainbow Falls State Park. Rainbow Falls is more like a rapids area, and the river crossings have both been washed out and won't be replaced. I know this because the Park Ranger mentioned this in a conversation. As a result, we didn't visit the southern portion of the park that contains all the Old Growth. Instead, we headed out on the Willapa Hills trail and headed east. The nice thing about this trail is that all remnants of the railroad were removed and the trail bed has a foundation of pea gravel, unlike the larger rock of the Klickitat trail. The first portion of this trail travels through farm land. After we made the turn south, in about 3.5 miles, the trail had trees surrounding it with a view of the Chehalis River.. A great easy trail for those days when you want an easy but scenic trail! By the way, this trail when completed will be a continuous 56 miles in length between Chehalis and South Bend WA!