Merriman Falls
Quinault, WA
Merriman Falls is a 40-foot waterfall visible directly from the South Shore Road along Lake Quinault. The falls cascade over a mossy rock face surrounded by dense temperate rainforest. No hiking is required, as the waterfall is steps from a roadside pullout.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Shot Types
- long-exposuredetailportrait
- Best Seasons
- springwinterfall
Author's Comments
Forty feet of water down a wall of moss, and you do not have to earn it. That is the strange thing about Merriman. You park at a pullout on South Shore Road and the falls are just there, framed by the dripping understory of the Quinault rainforest, no trail required. I have a complicated relationship with waterfalls you can drive to. They tend to feel less like a discovery and more like a transaction. Merriman is the exception. The reason is the moss. Everything around the falls is green in a way that is hard to describe to anyone who has not stood in a temperate rainforest in March. Not one green. Dozens. The rock face behind the water is upholstered in it, and the spray keeps it saturated, and on an overcast morning the whole scene glows with a soft internal light that no direct sun could ever match. This is a place that wants weather. Bright sun flattens it. A gray February drizzle brings it alive. Bring a tripod and a polarizer. The falls are tall enough and narrow enough to reward a long exposure, but the real photograph here might not be the wide shot at all. Work closer. Find the section where a single thread of water peels away from the main flow and falls through a curtain of fern. That is the frame I keep trying to make and have not quite made yet. Morning light, before the road wakes up, is when the place feels most like itself.
Gallery
You might also like
Nearby Places
Quinault, WA
Quinault Rain Forest Loop
The Quinault Rain Forest features a network of trails through old-growth temperate rainforest along the shores of Lake Quinault. The area contains several record-holding large trees including a massive Sitka spruce and western red cedar. The half-mile Rain Forest Nature Trail and the longer Maple Glade Trail wind through cathedral-like groves.
Quinault, WA
Lake Quinault Lodge Shoreline
The shoreline of Lake Quinault near the historic Lake Quinault Lodge offers calm water reflections of the surrounding rainforest-clad mountains. The lake is glacially formed and sits at 295 feet elevation. Morning mist frequently rises from the lake surface, creating atmospheric photography conditions.
Forks, WA
Hoh Rain Forest
One of the largest temperate rainforests in the U.S., the Hoh Rain Forest receives over 12 feet of rain annually. Massive Sitka spruce, western red cedar, and bigleaf maple trees are draped in thick curtains of moss and ferns. The Hall of Mosses Trail and Spruce Nature Trail offer accessible loops through the old-growth canopy.