Featured Trip Reports

Mount Townsend - Silver Lakes Traverse, Silver Lakes

Trail conditions (May 13th - May 14th) Driving to the Upper Mt Townsend Trailhead is clear. No snow along road - you'll be able to make it in no problem. Just watch for rocks along the side of road ...

Ruby Mountain

Let me tell you, I'm head over heels for the mesmerizing views that Ruby offers - they practically slapped me in the face on this picture-perfect, bluebird day. And hey, a big shoutout to the groups ...

Lewis Butte

The balsamroot is past peak, but still stunning when viewed en masse. The lupine are at peak and they smell amazing. The hills are still green; they'll be brown in summer. Western meadowlarks were ...

Columbia Hills State Park - Crawford Ranch Trail

Bottom Line: Spectacular sunset ramble from The Dalles Mountain Ranch trailhead in Columbia Hills Historical State Park, with profuse balsamroot and lupine, rolling green hills, and distance ...

Chelan Butte

Sooo many flowers blooming, with more to come in the next couple weeks! Areas of profusely blooming lupine and balsamroot, other areas where the bloom has barely started. Also plenty of smaller ...

Mary E. Theler Wetlands Nature Preserve

Quick half hour stroll today at 10AM. Saw a few other folks but not busy.

Chelan Lakeshore Trail

I got on the ferry at Fielding Point (plenty of parking, $7/night) & joined heaps of other backpackers who disembarked at Prince creek heading north. The east side of the lake had high altitude snow ...

Paradise Valley Conservation Area

Blog version ( disclaimers ) Access: Paradise Lake Trailhead ( park info ) Round Trip: 9 miles Elevation Range: 360′-440′ Gear: none Dog-Friendly: yes Route Another open space ...

Silver Falls - Grove of the Patriarchs Snowshoe, Silver Falls Loop, Eastside Trail

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: HWY 123 is snow free from the intersection with HWY 12 to the park boundary, where it is closed to cars. From there it continues to be snow free to at least Stevens Canyon ...

Enchanted Valley via East Fork Quinault River

Returned to the valley with the hope of making it to the once largest known Western Hemlock, 2 miles past the chalet. The road and trailhead were clear of snow. Standing snow during the first 2 miles ...

Friends Landing

Was a beautiful crisp morning walk. The trail does have a few places that are taped off for safety reasons. The boardwalk needed repaired in a couple places, but it’s taped off in those spots and was ...

Saddle Rock

Hiked the newly built (as of last fall) trail to Saddle Rock. The trail is still very steep but very wide, which hopefully will help with erosion, and there are several benches along the way if you ...

Ancient Lakes

Quick and easy hike down to Ancient Lakes via Judith Pool. The gate to the trailhead is open now so that saves you close to a mile round trip. Most of the lake is thawed out now and the waterfalls ...

Lewis River Falls

If you can make it past the many blowdowns along the access road (one of which completely crosses the entire roadway), the Lewis River Falls hike is absolutely stunning. Amazing vantage points and ...

Mailbox Peak - Old Trail, Mailbox Peak

Quick morning trip up Mailbox to catch a bluebird day. Made a loop of it going up the old trail and back down the new one. Middle Fork road and the trailhead lot were snow free and dry. Not too many ...

Boulder River

It was a good day to experience the four states (yep, 4) liquid, solid, vapor-exhaled and hot chocolate being the fourth state I'm sure. There were a lot of icy spots on the trail but all of them ...

Cowiche Canyon Preserve

I took a walk in Cowiche Canyon from the west end on this sunny, cold afternoon. I walked down to bridge 4 and back. There is no ice on the trail now, so the walking was easy. And in a few weeks ...

Ruby Beach

Drove up to Ruby beach for sunset and photography. The parking lot and road leading up to it are much improved now. 1 of 2 restrooms open and stocked. Stream crossing wasn't difficult but it was ...

Little Si, Boulder Garden Loop

It was a beautiful day so I decided to hike to Little Si and include the Boulder Garden Loop along the way. The dog needed some exercise and so did I, but I didn't want anything too serious since I ...

South Coldwater Trail

What a beautiful day for a hike! Blue skies and sunshine; I was very happy to get out on the trail. The road to the trailhead was clear and dry. The roadwalk to the trailhead from the Hummocks ...

White Salmon Road Snowshoe

A great day in the mountains! I'm still finding new snowshoe routes in this area, and today I thought I would try White Salmon Road, just below Mt. Baker Ski area. I wanted a trail with a lot of snow ...

Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park Backcountry

Ethan, Karen, & I took a hike out the Ginkgo Backcountry on this sunny, mild day. We walked a bit over 1.5 miles and found a nice place overlooking the river for lunch. We stayed our usual hour or ...

Pleasant Valley Snowshoe

Started at Hell's Crossing. Arrived about 9:30 and were the first ones there but another car arrived as we were gearing up. Didn't see them again though so I assume they went on the north side. We ...

Dog Mountain

Wore microspikes and used trekking poles. It was super cold and a lot of the trail was snow and ice covered. There were some trees down on the trail, but they weren't hard to walk over. There was ...

Mazama Ridge Snowshoe

Hiked on: December 31, 2022 - January 1, 2023 Hike Time: 1.5hrs Day 1 / 4.5hrs Day 2 Camped at: Mazama Ridge Weather: 33F/16F cloudy / sunny Popularity: ...

Umtanum Creek Canyon

Ethan, Karen, & I took a walk up Umtanum Canyon on this cloudy, cool day. We walked about 1.5 miles up the canyon until we were opposite the big buttress and found a nice spot for lunch. After ...

Reflection and Louise Lakes Snowshoe

First, a reminder that the road from Longmire to Paradise is currently only open on weekends. We snowshoed from Narada falls and split from the Reflection Lakes trail to climb Mazama Ridge ...

Garfield Ledges, Middle Fork Connector Trail

I wasn't sure what to expect driving down the middle fork valley road. The snow level on the surrounding mountains looked to be more than a thousand feet higher but the valley always seems to be ...

Mailbox Peak - Old Trail

Happy New Year from Mailbox Peak!! No snowshoes are needed now as there is a decent track all the way to the top. We put spikes on around 2800 ft and did just fine. Having poles was nice coming down ...

Cowiche Canyon Preserve

I took my annual trek to the Cowiche Canyon Uplands this afternoon to photograph the last light of the year. I walked the South Uplands Loop, up to Cowiche Knoll, & down Coyote Way a ways. I wore ...