day hikes
Evan’s Creek Preserve
With new snow falling in the mountains, we chose to explore the new Evans Creek Preserve in Sammamish. This was a quiet city park hike. It was flat and had just enough change in scenery to keep it interesting for the kids.
Glacier Vista – Mt. Rainier Winter Hike
Dear Kinder Teacher,
Please excuse Joey’s absence yesterday, Feb. 7. He was unable to make it to school because the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was above 50 degrees. In place of classroom time, we worked on map reading and addition as we added elevation and mile distances. We also measured angle of slopes and talked about avalanche danger.
Thank you for understanding,
According to the forecast, Feb 7 would be the last day of sunshine for a while and it happened to fall on a Tuesday. The kids eagerly packed up their backpacks and threw on their snow gear. We left Federal Way at 9:30 and arrived at paradise at 12:00. There were only ten cars in the parking lot. The place just seemed so bare. We intended to snowshoe, but I figured staying on the main trail would make snowshoeing unnecessary. Paradise was getting about 15 mph winds.
We slowly made our way over to the start of the Paradise snowfield. The parking lot was a solid sheet of ice. Elissa made sure to skate across it. We headed up on what is normally called the Glacier Vista Trail. Over the next hour and a half we followed the well stomped down trail toward Panorama Point. At times this was slow going. The kids were learning how to effectively kick steps and traverse over (what seemed to them) steeper drop offs. As we left the trees, we were feeling the wind pretty strong. In an hour and a half, we made it up to Glacier Vista. The views just as amazing in the winter time.
We ate lunch and huddled together to keep warm. After about fifteen minutes and some debate on whether we should hike up to the summit of Rainier, I convinced them that we should head back down to the car to get some hot chocolate. The return was just as exciting as the ascent. Both Joey and Elissa were more comfortable on the snow and felt the need to run and slide on the trail (on hard compacted snow). Oh, well, they had fun and that is all that mattered. We made it back to the car by 3:00.
Heybrook Lookout
May 8, 2011
For Mother’s Day, the kids took me hiking. What a surprise! We ventured out to Heybrook Lookout off of Highway 2 near the town of Index. I have hiked this trail many times, but Jonathan and Elissa had never seen the 67 foot tall Lookout at the top. This hike turned out to be a little steep for Elissa. Although she made it, it was a little slow going. Oh well. There were just too many puddles to stomp into and steps to jump off of. The kids had a great time climbing rocks and then climbing the eight flights of steps up to the Lookout.
Cougar Mountain
February 25, 2011
We decided to stick with a hike closer to home. Cougar Mountian in Renton was an excellent choice. Shaun, Joey and Elissa headed down many trails that were interconnected. We hiked just over four miles. This is a fun hike to do even when it is raining.
East Peak – Rattlesnake Mt.
Feb 21, 2011
East Peak: 11 miles rt.
Elevation gain 3000 ft.
Shaun and I took off to hike up to East Peak on Rattlesnake Mt. From the trailhead to Rattlesnake Ledge was well populated on the first fair weather day we have had in months. We spent a lot of time walking right up on people and waiting to pass. We stopped at the Ledge and ate lunch. Then we climbed another 3.5 miles up to the East Peak of the Mountain. Snow started immediately. Up at East Peak, the views were limited. We thought about climbing the tower. However, Shaun would never do it. After ten minutes or so at the summit, we headed back down the trail. Great hike. I used it to break in my new mountaineering boots.
Lime Kiln/Robe Canyon Trail
February 5, 2011
I had heard this was a muddy, rain foresty, low-elevation, perfect winter hike. So we took off to Granite Falls, WA to explore this trail. It seemed much like the Ho Rain forest in the Olympics and it was really muddy. Elissa insisted on jumping into every puddle and refused to walk around any mud puddle. According to the rules of Elissa…one must always stomp through a puddle of mud. The trail follows the Lime Kiln until it meets up with the Robe Canyon. The kids enjoyed the moss and the narrow canyon like trails. At the turn around point was the Stillaguamish River.
Alta-Vista Trail, MRNP
August 25, 2010
Shaun, Joey and I took off to head up to Alta-Vista point at Mt. Rainier. We only hiked about four miles total. Joey was just having an off day for hiking. So we hung out at the lower elevation for a while and called it a day.
Fremont Lookout, MRNP
August 15, 2010
The fam, Anne and Sierra all met up to hike up to Fremont Lookout. This hike is on the Sunrise side of the Mountain. Most trails walk you right in front of Mount Rainier and you get a better perspective of just how big this mountain really is. The hike itself is fairly straight forward, however, I learned that day that some trails get so narrow and new hikers can get spooked with thousand foot drop offs. I now ask people before a hike whether they have any reservations about heights. We had a great time and enjoyed Anne and Sierra joining us on the trail.
Dungeness Spit
Oct 11, 2010
Joey, Shaun and I took off to the Peninsula to check out Dungeness Spit, a five mile spit that stretches out into the Pacific Ocean or more specifically Strait of Juan De Fuca. We didn’t have time to hike the five miles out to the light house, so we just walked a portion of the spit. Joey found a “club house” and began making it his own. We just kicked back and relaxed next to the sounds of small waves crashing into the Spit.
Rattlesnake Ledge
Rattlesnake Ledge
September 22, 2010
4.4 miles rt
1200 ft. elevation gain
Joey and I took off to hike to Rattlesnake Ledge. Ironman accompanied us along the trail. Beautiful day with distant views once we reached the summit. Joey was pretty excited when he was able to identify some of the surrounding peaks. We sat on top, ate lunch and talked about superheroes. Ok, so I just listened about superheroes. I love spending Joey-Mom time with him. After lunch, we jogged back down the mountain and went searching for blueberries.
