Thompson Family Hike Blog: July 2015

Thursday, July 16, 2015

7/16/15 - Federation Forest State Park Hike

Today we hiked throughout Federation Forest State park, along the White River and at the base of Mount Rainier. A 35 minute drive from Maple Valley, this is a very accessible hike, and was a great hike for the kids. The trails were flat, wide, and well groomed for fun hiking with the kids. This is a great State Park in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, and a worthwhile visit. The interactive learning center is currently closed for renovation, and it appears the project is stalled, unfortunately. We hiked a total on about 2 miles, including a very narrow path down to the white river. A great day and a great hike, highly recommended to visit with children.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

7/15/15 - Franklin Falls, Snoqualmie Alps

Today, Claire and Levi hiked with me to the Franklin Falls, located along I-90 towards Snoqualmie Pass. The parking area had signs informing about the $5 day use fee required. My National Park Pass did not work, as this is U.S. Forest Land, so the fee still had to be paid. The trail is travelled often, by many visitors. By the end of our trip, the parking lot and road was filled with cars, and there were many hikers starting out. I imagine this place feels as crowded as Disneyland on a weekend in the summer. The trail was built into many "boxes" out of logs and filled with gravel. These boxes created steps for us to use to climb our way up and down the trail. At the trails end, the falls are impressive, although the noise from the I-90 overpass takes away from the majestic scene. A very nice walk and a well maintained trail. After this hike, and a break for lunch, we went to the Pratt Lake Trailhead and hiked about a mile into the woods up the mountain before turning around and returning home.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Orcas Island Hikes - Fourth of July Weekend - 2015

Happy Birthday America! What better way to celebrate than a trip to the top of Mount Constitution on Orcas Island. We spent three days exploring and hiking around Orcas Island for the fourth of July weekend. We booked a lovely little place using AirBNB called Harper House. It turned out to be a great location for us to call home for a few days. We completed a number of hikes while on the island, including a 0.7 mile waterfall hike, a 4.0 mile hike around Mountain Lake, a 1.2 mile hike through limestone quarry along Judd Cove, a 1.8 mile hike to the shoreline at Obstruction Pass, not to mention walking all over beautiful downtown Eastsound. Our stay included a nice dinner out at West Sound Café, time around Cascade Lake in Moran State Park, and wandering through the Farmers Market. We also visited a small church built in the 1880's and were 4 of 12 attending the Sunday afternoon Lutheran church service. The kids loved wandering along the beach, looking for crabs, seashells, and anemones. We woke up to an unusual yellow sky on Sunday morning, which turned out to be smoke cover from the massive wildfires burning in British Columbia.