The Wallace River is a medium sized river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in Washington, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is a tributary of the Skykomish River

Skykomish River

The Skykomish River is a Washington river 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 of the North Fork Skykomish River and South Fork Skykomish River approximately one...

 and joins near Sultan, just upstream from the mouth of the Sultan River

Sultan River

The Sultan River is a river in Snohomish County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a tributary of the Skykomish River, which it joins at the town of Sultan, Washington...

. The Wallace River is 15 miles (24 km) long. Its drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 is 30 square miles (78 km²) in area.

Course

The Wallace River begins at the divide between it and Salmon Creek. It flows west from here until it enters Wallace Falls State Park

Wallace Falls State Park

The Wallace Falls State Park is a camping park with shoreline on the Wallace River, Wallace Lake, Jay Lake, Shaw Lake and the Skykomish River. Big Eddy State Park is part of Wallace Falls State Park. Big Eddy is not located at Wallace Falls but is about on highway 2 outside the town of Gold Bar....

, where it flows southwest and drops over three large waterfalls, receives the North Fork Wallace River just below the final falls, before going in a westward direction again. It receives three large tributaries in short order before passing under the Stevens Pass Highway, Olney Creek, May Creek and Bear Creek. After flowing under the highway, it continues west until it reaches its confluence with the Skykomish.

North Fork Wallace River

The North Fork Wallace River begins in Shaw Lake and flows south, passing through two more lakes, Jay Lake and Wallace Lake, before merging with the main fork just below the bottom of the three large waterfalls on the main fork. A trail leads to all three lakes.