Saint Edward's state park

No go at Denny creek today

We hit the parish knights of Columbus pancake breakfast this morning and headed straight east on 90 towards snoqualmie pass.  At exit 47 we followed the signs for Denny creek trail.  They are partnered with signs for franklin falls trail which is super close.  The drive was about 45 minutes from issaquah.
Well- we drove up and down the streets near the trailhead.  Not one parking spot to be found.  The place was packed AND swarming with people.  I think we lost our taste for the trail on this particular day.
Notes of reminder:
Best time to hit Denny creek trail- first week of public school while everyone else is trapped in desks.
On a hot hot early September day in 2015 look for us there.

Snoqualmie falls

It occurs to me that I forgot to write about our hike from last week.

It was the best yet I believe- and will likely be hard to beat.  Well... That is unless we make it to the Denny creek slide this Sunday.  The weather is supposed to get up to 85 so I kind of hope we can work that into our schedule.

So- back to snoqualmie.  It was a bit of an elevation challenge as we started from the parking lot down by the river and worked our way up to the falls.

This was strategic.  Anne told me about this trail- how steep it was- and I used her warning as a plan of attack.  I decided we should hike UP on our way out and hike DOWN(aka roll down) the hill on our way back in.  It worked beautifully.  We stopped and studied the nurse logs and stumps: logs and stumps that have fallen or been cut and given birth to new second growth trees.  I took a few pictures.  John quickly learned how to spot them since we told him that the signage said we couldn't climb the trees with "babies" on top since they were a bit fragile.

Up and up and up we climbed until we could hear a loud thundering coming from around a bend.  Sure enough the trees gave way to sun and mist and a crowd gathered on the platform looking down at the glorious falls.  I had no idea how large they were!  It was a nice surprise.  We were layered and quickly started peeling off the top layers.  Alice got to stretch her legs a bit since she had been riding in the pack.  

We headed back down the hill after a bit and it was a job coaxing.  The best way to coax a toddler on a hike is by appealing to his stomach.  I had my bag full of Lara bars.  And back at the van I had the promise of rice cakes and chocolate coconut peanut butter to top them.  That kept him rolling.  

It is a trail I would not mind visiting again.

--
Peace,
Elizabeth

Red town /coal creek loop

This morning we joined Anne, her two kids Alex and Angelina, and Kelsey and her baby girl Lydia at the red town coal creek loop. It is a great little loop that has lots of character and history.
The downside to the hike was the amount of dog poop on the trail. It is a very popular trail for people who don't clean up after their dogs.
The trail has a deep history though and it kept us interested. It is the site of the ford coal mine- so there were shafts and hoists and a coal car that the kids climbed up and sat in. I think I got a picture with max's camera of that so I hope he uploads it.
At the end of our hike we decided to just park it in the grass because the weather was so nice. A great lab puppy came upon our hiking party and the owner let us play ball with him. His name was gunner and he was so playful!
Frankie got surprised by a snake in the grass and let out a scream that snake will likely never recover from. And several spiders made cameo appearances much to Anne's chagrin.

Tiger Mountain State Park

 This school year,  I am learning the native plants of Washington, and the plant of the week is Red Alder (Alnus rubra).  I only saw  a couple of these plants on our hike at Tiger Mountain.

But maybe on our other hikes I'll see more.  I'm always kind of excited when I see a plant I know the name of  :)  Anyway, our hike was really cool.  Everything was so green and beautiful.  I tried to take a lot of pictures.

George and the girls really like this tree.  This trail was fun, but after we'd hiked for a while,  we decided to take the 'round the lake trail.  I was hoping we might see a moose, but no such luck.  We couldn't  see the lake very well from the trail anyhow.  Too many trees in the way.  George and Max were not happy, so they led the way off trail and found a little beach.  Traditional lake was so pretty!  An Osprey flew right over us,  but I didn't get a picture :(  I did get a picture of the lake though!

a little more exploring and...

        

                                                  bullfrog tadpoles!                                                                                                                       

Swamp monster hike

Swamp monsters trail on tiger mountain: issaquah

The first Friday of the school year we shelved the books and got out our backpacks, field notebooks, and water bottles and hit the trail.
We heard from a swim team friend (hi lisa!) that tiger mountain had a great kid friendly trail called "the swamp monster trail" due to all the trees covered heavily in moss.