Narada Falls
Largest waterfall accessible by car !
Located 17 miles east of the Nisqually southwest entrance to Mount Rainier National Park and one mile from Paradise. Narada Falls offers beautiful scenic view.
Narada Falls offers historic information, a parking lot for cars and buses/ RV, picnic tables, restrooms, a comfort station, and trail/ photo spot.
The waterfall was originally named after a Hindu Guru Narada which can be translated to "uncontained" or "pure" in 1893. After the death of former U.S Representative Francis Cushman in 1909 there was an attempt to rename the waterfall but failed to succeed.
The hike from the parking lot to the bottom of the scenic trail is 0.2 mi. The trail down is on a steep slope and recommended to go during the summer while the spring/winter the ground is particularly slippery.
The Paradise river flows over the andesitic deposit from previous lava flows which was cooled by the glacier that was once there. Andesite radiated in a beam to suggest that the lava cooled uneven and columnar pattern where the lava cooled against and melted the thinnest layer of ice forming the column shape.
The river is a clear color because the water originates from the snowfield and not the debris from the glacier.
References
Narada Falls (U.S. National Park Service). wwwnpsgov. [accessed 2023 Jul 22]. https://www.nps.gov/places/narada-falls.htm.
Narada Falls. Washington Trails Association. [accessed 2023 Jul 22]. https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/narada-falls.
