Sunset Falls is the final of the three
waterfalls on the South Fork
Skykomish River
The Skykomish River is a long river in the U.S. state of Washington which drains the west side of the Cascade Mountains in the southeast section of Snohomish County and the northeast corner of King County. The river starts with the confluence ...
. The falls drop in a long, narrow, powerful chute. The river is thought to attain speeds of an hour and the chute is nearly long. In high water, because of several potholes in the falls, water can sometimes shoot out as much as 30 feet.
Access
Public access to Sunset Falls currently does not exist.
Running of Sunset Falls
On May 30, 1926, daredevil
stunt performer
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...
Al Faussett ran the falls in a canoe with hundreds of people watching from the rocks beside the falls. He escaped with only brief and minor inner pains. He later went on to run
Eagle Falls as well as many other falls in Oregon and Idaho.
Several local kayakers, most notably Rob McKibbin and Sam Grafton have run Sunset Falls successfully. It is considered a class 6 rapid, with unavoidable and potentially deadly hazards.
[http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/whitewater/kayaking_faussett/index_ww.php]
References
Waterfalls of Snohomish County, Washington
Waterfalls of Washington (state)
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