Trip Report
Day Hike - Wallace Lake
Two of us did a private Saturday hike with our dog to scout Wallace Lake including its north beach, Pebble Beach. Clouds kept the temperatures cooler and crowds were mostly headed for the Falls. We had the beach all to ourselves for a good ten minutes.
Courtenay Schurman
- Sat, Jul 19, 2025
- Wallace Falls
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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We arrived at 8:45 a.m. on a Saturday and grabbed one of the last spots in the parking lot. The trail signs say park is open at 8 a.m. to dusk, but a ranger said 6:30 a.m. is more likely in summer.
Be sure you have a Discover pass. And go early if you're visiting on a weekend. There are multiple rest rooms at either end of the parking lot, and eyeball estimate room for 100 or more cars. When we came out at 2 cars were parked clear down on the main road, including a yard that advertised $20/day to park 100 yards closer.
There is evidence of recent trail work including a new bridge near an enormous blowdown. We came across one step-over but otherwise the trail is in decent shape, especially the strip between the road and the lake - gentle grade, bigger gravel and dirt, comfortable on the ankles and feet. And plenty of river access between the parking lot and the Falls, lots of people had their dogs enjoying the river.
I'd been to the lake before, four years earlier, doing the whole Wallace Lake/Wallace Falls loop, but I hadn't ever skirted the west side to see Pebble Beach on the north shore. There are lots of logs for great spots for lunch; the other turn-outs on the west side go to the lake but they don't provide ready wading access. At the kiosk on the south end of the lake, "Pebble Beach" looks like it's half way up the lake, but you have to go all the way to the gravel run-out where the sign for Jay Lake says "1 mile." Comfortable with the lead-in to that final mile, we stopped at the north end of the lake as "good enough" on the day.
2 of us did a private hike with our dog to scout Wallace Lake for an upcoming Mountaineers trip lead.
We started out walking with some pretty big groups of families, trail runners, and hikers, a few backpackers and dogs, with electrical power lines zapping faintly overhead. But once we got into the woods, the sounds disappeared.
And at mile 1.5 (where there are toilets just off the main trail) the crowds disappeared as well; the bulk of people visiting Wallace Falls State Park go to the Falls. We took the Greg Ball trail into the woods, heading for Wallace Lake along Woody rather than Railroad Grade. It was a humid, overcast, cooler day than it's been in weeks, and for that we were all thankful. Especially our dog.
On the morning, we heard 19 species of birds including a pair of belted kingfishers, two hairy woodpeckers foraging near each other, at least one cedar waxwing, varied and Swainson's thrushes, and a western tanager. Not much in the way of wildflowers other than some hollyhocks. Once you get off the Wallace Falls trail, we only saw a few people, the holy grail (to us) of weekend hiking.
The beach itself drops off pretty steeply, so if you go to wade, prepare to only get your ankles wet or take a swim. Colder than I thought!
We spotted one campsite on the east side of the lake, but when a party of 5 and another of 4 arrived, we packed up and made our way back the way we came.
The sun poked out the last half hour of our trip; AllTrails had us at 10 miles round trip, 2.4 mph average pace, with 2000' gain (I thought it was closer to 1600' but maybe with the ups and downs...) I tested out a new pair of boots that did great.
On the drive back we got stuck in slower US-2 traffic, generally the case on weekend hikes. Hoping on a Tuesday lead we won't have the same problem when we go opposite major traffic flow...