Planetskier: Salish Lodge - Spa above the Snoqualmie Falls

Salish Lodge is a luxury hotel ledged right above the spectacular 82 meter Snoqualmie Falls. The falls and the lodge are iconic and well known, not least due to their presence in the 1990s TV series Twin Peaks. It is a wonderful park to visit, and the views really are something else, I think objectively a more beautiful place than the Niagara Falls, for instance. And the hotel is superb.

So is the restaurant. Wonderful food, never have had edible candle appetizer for instance :-)

The spa is fairly compact though, compared to the outsize reputation of the hotel. There are two pools, but only one of the is usable for hotel guests, and there is just one Finnish sauna. Very nice spa, but be sure to book your visit, it is not guaranteed that there are slots for your visit. Hotel staff is very nice though, for instance we were able to visit the spa without any extra payment or reservation, luckily it happened to free at the time.

The falls continue to be spectacular, although some or perhaps most of the water is diverted to two power plants, one built inside the cliffs in 1899, and another one half a kilometer downstream in 1910. The plants are owned by Puget Sound Energy.

The land was also owned by them (I think), but in 2007 the Muckleshoot tribe purchased the land surrounding the falls, and planned to develop the area with a hotel and homes. Arguments about building on this land that was sacred to the Snoqualmie people ensued. The place is a burial site and the location for their fabled history, "the place where First Woman and First Man were created by Moon the Transformer".

Then in 2019, the Snoqualmie Tribe purchased the lodge and the area surrounding it.

The park by the hotel has viewing platforms on the cliff ledges above the river canyon, probably the best viewing spot. But there's a very nice path down to the river. Here you can see the 1910 power plant and the massive water pipes leading to it. You can also walk a few hundred meters forward on a platform built by the riverside, to view the falls from a different angle, at the river level.

There's a lot of nature and trees on the path down to the river, much recommended. It does descend 100 meters though, so if you're not equipped to climb that back up you should know there's also a way to get to the same spot by the riverside by car. (Or get an Uber to haul you back up.)

The lodge home page is here, and more information from it can be found from the Snoqualmie Falls wikipedia page. Room prices at the lodge start from four hundred dollars per night even on low season weeknights.

More photos, first the hotel and falls:

Then the walk down the park trail to see view from the riverside:

Then the spa, first the private party pool (not for hotel guests) and then the sauna:

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and

This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.