Mushrooms: Weird, Wonderful and Worth a Hike
As the days get shorter, traveling to high-mountain trailheads eats up valuable light, and those epic hikes of summer become memories to motivate you through the winter months. Autumn brings the opportunity to explore more easily-accessible locations like river valleys, your local park, even your own backyard for those weird, fascinating organisms — mushrooms!
Rather than gazing out over a sea of peaks, direct your gaze to the miniature world at your feet, and see how many different kinds of mushrooms you can spot on your next hike.
Mushrooms on a fallen log at Big Tree Ridge. Photo by Maddy.
Mushrooms: a brief primer
Mushrooms are the “fruit” of mycelium, a network of a single-cell threads just under the surface right below your feet. When you kick up loose material from the forest floor on a hike (or dig it up on a work party) and you see what looks like a thick, white spiderweb, that’s mycelium. It creates a symbiotic relationship with the trees and other organic matter around it, and when it gets enough nutrients (or conditions are just right), up pops a mushroom.
Where to find fabulous fungi? Just about everywhere
Mycelium can be found almost anywhere, which means mushrooms can pop up on almost any hike. Washington has one of the most expansive and diverse selection of mushrooms in the world. Many mushrooms require water to make their final push through the soil, which makes fall a wonderful time to get out and search for them. Try one of the hikes below or share your own favorites for finding fungi in a Trip Report.
WTA Pro Tip: It may go without saying, but don't pick a mushroom unless you are well-versed in the the ethics, risks, best-practice and regulations of foraging them.
Olympic Peninsula
Sleepy Hollow Trail
Location: Hood Canal
Mileage: 16.6 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 200 feet
Frosty fungi on the Sleepy Hollow trail. Photos by Happiest when hiking.
The 16+ mile Sleepy Hollow trail is excellent for mushroom hunting because you can turn around at any point; no need to commit to the whole mileage.
> Plan your hike to Sleepy Hollow Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide
Miller Peninsula - Thompson Spit
Location: Northern Coast
Mileage: 5 miles, roundtrip
Highest Point: 360 feet
Mushrooms at Miller Peninsula. Photo by littlefoot.
Miller Peninsula has a pretty trail (built partly by WTA volunteers!) to help you check out this area. This wooded walk enters a lush ravine lined with remnant old-growth and gives way to an isolated beach with views of Protection Island.
> Plan your hike to Miller Peninsula-Thompson Spit using WTA's Hiking Guide
Sherman Peak Loop
Location: Olympia
Mileage: 7.8 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 800 feet
Little mycena on a rotting log on the Sherman Creek Loop. Photo by ehiker.
Amazing old-growth forest combined with easy hiking and a shelter at Camp Handy make this an ideal hike for wet weather. Be sure to take your guide to Northwest mushrooms; many species can be easily spotted from the trail.
> Plan your hike to Sherman Peak Loop using WTA's Hiking Guide
South Cascades
Norway Pass
Location: Mount St. Helens Area
Mileage: 4.5 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 860 feet
Norway Pass is fairly exposed, but look close and you can see some incredible mushrooms. Photo by Solohiker35.
Hike through the destructive force and the restorative power of nature on this hike in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption. The rocky ash and treeless areas are testaments to the devastation caused by the explosion, while wildflowers and shrubs signal the return of vegetation to the denuded landscape. Take a look under logs and in shrubbery for mushrooms.
> Plan your hike to Norway Pass using WTA's Hiking Guide
Paul Peak
Location: Mount Rainier Area
Mileage: 6.2 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 900 feet
Trailside growths. Photo by ehiker.
Paul Peak is a quiet summit at a popular national park. Take it slow on this trail, and look down. There are lots of mushrooms to be seen, and if the views afield are good, so much the better.
> Plan your hike to Paul Peak using WTA's Hiking Guide
Siouxon Creek
Location: Lewis River Region
Mileage: 13.8 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 635 feet
Mushrooms on a log near a waterfall on Siouxon Creek. Photo by Susan Saul.
The Siouxon Creek Trail is a lovely creekside ramble in three parts. The first few miles are a quiet walk through a classic fern-dotted, mossy forest. In the second section, hikers find Siouxon Creek and fellow waterfall seekers, and the final miles offer more solitude and small narrow canyons with more waterfalls to enjoy.
> Plan your hike to Siouxon Creek using WTA's Hiking Guide
Puget Sound and Islands
Dockton Forest
Location: Seattle-Tacoma Area
Mileage: 9 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: varies
Lush mushrooms in Dockton Forest. Photo by ehiker.
Dockton Forest and Natural Area, along with the adjacent Dockton Park, is 152 acres of working forest, saltwater shoreline and natural park lands located on the south-central part of Maury Island. In fall, mushrooms pop up everywhere, in abundance and in variety. Note: Although this is a great area to view mushrooms, it's not an ideal site for foraging. Lingering heavy metals from the Tacoma Smelter Plume are in high concentration here.
> Plan your hike to Dockton Forest using WTA's Hiking Guide
Camano Ridge Forest Preserve
Location: Whidbey Island
Mileage: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 250 feet
Ghost pipes at Camano Forest Preserve. Photo by geezerhiker.
The trail at Camano Forest Preserve winds through a typical evergreen forest with plenty of sword ferns, and maple trees that are lovely in autumn. As a bonus, there are lots of mushrooms to be found here, too.
> Plan your hike to Camano Ridge Forest Preserve using WTA's Hiking Guide
Anacortes Community Forest Lands
Location: Bellingham Area
Mileage: varies
Elevation Gain: varies
There are a myriad of hiking options in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands, and most of the trails here have little fungi gems along the way. Pick from all our suggested routes, or build your own!
> Plan your hike to Anacortes Community Forest Lands using WTA's Hiking Guide
North Cascades
Scott Paul Trail
Location: Mount Baker Area
Mileage: 8 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2000 feet
Photo by longfoot.
Take a rugged loop hike to the base of Mount Baker or a rugged alternate route to Park Butte: take your pick. Along the way, soak in sweeping views of the North Cascades, gaze at Koma Kulshan’s glistening glaciers, munch on an inexhaustible supply of berries, and marvel at old-growth western hemlock forest.
> Plan your hike to the Scott Paul Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide
Thornton Lakes and Trapper Peak
Location: North Cascades Highway
Mileage: 10.2 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,900 feet
A solitary mushroom on the Trail to Trapper Peak. Photo by CJ44.
While the higher elevation keeps this very popular North Cascades trail from being a year-round fungal destination, it can be a mushroom paradise. In 2014, trip reporter ehiker called it "mushroom heaven" reported seeing many different varieties from tiny mycena to giant boletus. There is a restriction on picking mushrooms in this area, so make sure to just feast on the fungi with your eyes.
> Plan your hike to Thornton Lakes and Trapper Peak using WTA's Hiking Guide
Sourdough Creek
Location: Highway 20
Mileage: 3.5 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 60 feet
Look for early fall fungi along the trail. Photo by Muledeer.
Diablo Lake is always a good spot to stop and take in the North Cascades. If you want to extend your stop into a hike, check out the Sourdough Creek Trail. This short and moderate trail traverses through lush, mossy forest and leads you up to the Sourdough Creek waterfalls. With wildlife, mountain and lake views and plenty of rest stops, this trail is perfect for all ages.
> Plan your hike to Sourdough Creek using WTA's Hiking Guide
Central Cascades
Lodge Lake
Location: Snoqualmie Pass
Mileage: 3 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 600 feet
A cluster of mushrooms on the Lodge Lake Trail. Photo by Shelby Pothier.
Named fittingly for its proximity to the Snoqualmie Pass ski lodge, Lodge Lake offers a beautiful, leisurely hike. The trail begins under tree cover but shortly opens up into the vast, wildflower-covered ski hill passing underneath the chairlifts. Make sure to take the opportunity to admire the towering peaks across the way on the north side of I-90.
> Plan your hike to Lodge Lake using WTA's Hiking Guide
Schaefer Lake
Location: Stevens Pass – East
Mileage: 9 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3200 feet
Purple and green trailside. Photo by Lucy.
The relative solitude here is because accessing Schaefer Lake requires either a ford of the Chiwawa River or a crossing on a natural log bridge, which, depending on the season, may or may not be available. By fall, the river ford should be manageable, but check trip reports just in case.
> Plan your hike to Schaefer Lake using WTA's Hiking Guide
Lake Janus and Grizzly Peak
Location: Stevens Pass – East
Mileage: 16.5 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,525 feet
Purple buds on a trailside log. Photo by Muledeer.
Stroll north on the Pacific Crest Trail to tranquil Lake Janus and neighboring Grizzly Peak. This trail offers panoramas of the Central Cascades’ finest peaks and undulating meadows blanketed with wildflowers as far as the eye can see.
> Plan your hike to Lake Janus and Grizzly Peak using WTA's Hiking Guide
Eastern Washington
ELK CREEK FALLS
Location: Selkirk Mountains
Mileage: 2.1 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 300 feet
Search for fall mushrooms along the trails and shoreline of Lake Sullivan. Photo along Elk Creek by TheMarmot
The northeast corner of the state is surprisingly wet, often racking up as many inches of rain in the year as some spots along the western crest of the Cascades. Poke around the trails surrounding spectacular Lake Sullivan, including this waterfall wonder, to see what kind of fungi all that rain serves up in fall.
> Plan your hike to Elk Creek Falls using WTA's Hiking Guide
Salmo-Priest Loop
Location: Selkirk Mountains
Mileage: 19 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,400 feet
Mushrooms and moss go together nicely. Photo by Bundocker.
Hike through the very northeastern corner of Washington on this multiday loop. This is high country, so plan your trip in the early fall before too much snow falls.
> Plan your hike to Salmo-Priest Loop using WTA's Hiking Guide
Recommended Reading about Mushrooms
- All that the Rain Promises and More… By David Arora
A great beginners mushroom field guide - A Field Guide to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Daniel Winkler
Light weight but packed with field info, this book has all the good edibles at a glance. Plus, it categorizes the level of mushroom identification in order to identify level of risk for safe identification. - Mushroom by Nicholas Money
A brief cultural, natural, and scientific history of mushrooms. - Mycophilia by Eugenia Bone
A first-person account of Bone’s infatuation with mushrooms, from casual gatherer to member of the New York Mycological Society - The Mushroom Hunters by Langdon Cook
Mycological Societies in Washington
- Puget Sound Mycological Society
- Kitsap Peninsula Mycological Society (KPMS), Bremerton, WA
- Northwest Mushroomers Association (NMA), Bellingham, WA
- Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society (OPMS), Chimacum, WA
- Snohomish County Mycological Society (SCMS), Everett, WA
- South Sound Mushroom Club Olympia, WA
- Southwest Washington Mycological Society (SWMS) Chehalis, WA
- Spokane Mushroom Club Spokane, WA
- Yakima Valley Mushroom Society Yakima, WA