Hiker Headlines: Share Your Thoughts, Highway 20 Updates, Name Changes, New Bridge

It’s November 3. Share your thoughts on multiple proposed long-term plans for our trails and outdoor spaces. Part of Highway 20 will be temporarily closing starting tonight, but some fire closures in the national park have been lifted. Nine derogatory names for natural features have been changed. A new bridge has been completed in the Black Diamond Open Space. Here’s some news you may have missed while out on trail this week.

Diablo Lake — along with the Thunder Creek Trail, Ross Lake East Bank and Desolations areas — in the North Cascades is back open, but some of Highway 20 will be temporarily closed starting tonight. Photo by Steve Kennedy.

Share your thoughts: The Forest Service has extended the deadline for their call for comments on their comprehensive plan for the Pacific Northwest Trail to Nov. 14. Read up on the proposed plan and submit your thoughts online before the deadline. Additionally, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is inviting the public to share thoughts on the future environmental and recreational development of Ebey Island. 

North Cascades: Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, will be closed temporarily at Ross Dam trailhead (milepost 134) due to avalanche danger starting today, November 3, at 6 p.m. until conditions are safe. Additionally, some fire closures have lifted: the Thunder Creek trail, Diablo Lake, Ross Lake East Bank and Desolation areas have reopened. The Chilliwack area fire closures are still in place.

Derogatory name changes approved: The Washington State Department of Natural Resources’s Committee of Geographic Names has approved the renaming of nine natural features in Washington from derogatory names and corrected the spelling of a San Juan Islands bay. Among the name changes includes a creek renamed to Noskeliikuu — “the place where the name dropped,” a long-time Quinault tribal history name — and a Skamania County lake renamed Aalvic Wahtum after Lucille Aalvic — the first officially enrolled citizen of the Yakama Nation.

Bridge reopening: The Black Diamond Open Space has a new and improved bridge! Thanks to King County Parks, the bridge across Ravensdale Creek was replaced with an elevated bridge. The bridge is an important piece of the area’s trail network, and provides visitors with higher views and higher clearance for any debris flowing down the creek. 

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