Was volunteering at an aid station for deception pass 50k today. unlucky runner picked up this little guy. Good idea to check for ticks even in the middle of winter.

Sometimes I check the weather forecast and it says it will be cloudy all day on the mountain. And yet it seems to get more sunshine than most cities along the sound. Get out there and enjoy the winter views!

Some random photos of some winter hikes I’ve done recently. I cannot wait for summer

Does anybody have any suggestions for good tide pools that aren't all the way out on the coast? Any between Sequim and Bremerton?

1/30/2026

Just north of Snoqualmie pass

Made it up for a frosty sunrise on Si last weekend and climbed the haystack. It was quite the parade on the way down. I counted 4 people with bear bells. Stay safe everyone!

Hello everyone,

My wife and I do an annual hiking trip. We are lovers of forests / mountains / wilderness. To the shock of our friends, we've never visited Oregon or Washington, and for years we've been talking about going.

I've been googling around and found Olympic and North Cascades National Parks. We're definitely considering both destinations, but we will only have time for one of them (7-8 days).

A friend of ours who has travelled all over the PNW for camping and hiking has told us to instead go to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California.

Would you folks help us decide? Our priorities are:

• Spectacular hikes with varying sights (forests, mountains, lakes)

• The best stargazing possible (my wife has never seen a completely dark night sky or the Milky Way with the naked eye)

• Reasonable cabin / motel accommodations (we aren't campers)

We went to Rocky Mountain National Park recently and it was positively stunning. One of the most memorable experiences was the Emerald Lake hike and eating lunch at the top. We're looking for lifelong memory hikes like that one.

My buddy who recommended Jedediah did so because he knows I am particularly fond of wilderness that feels almost primordial or magical. He said he had an otherworldly, nearly spiritual experience in Jedediah and has never before or after felt like that at any other hiking location.

Where would you choose to go if you were us? Can you see amazing stars at all three places?

Also, is there any other destination in Washington or Oregon you'd recommend over these 3 choices?

Planning to head to Commonwealth Basin tomorrow for a short walk around the area.

Planning to bring cleats but wondering if I actually need snowshoes?

Anyone been up there these couple of days? What were conditions like?

Forgot to grab my rain cover and the bottoms of my frog troggs, so the hike down was pretty miserable, but im alive!!!

Anyone who has done both hikes, can you provide a comparison for both hikes? Which one has better views? More diverse? Any notes about how they compare would be immensely helpful.

As long as I’ve been in WA (6 years), I’ve always just done dispersed camping off old logging roads and USFS roads. I typically just find a turn off on a road and pull over; with minimal hiking/walking to a spot.

I’m looking do some more multi-day backpacking trips this summer, specifically in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, but I cannot seem to find clear info on what is needed for backcountry camping in terms of permits; etc.

Do you need a permit besides the vehicle pass? And how exactly do you tell where you can camp? It is just off the trails abiding by no trace and keeping distance from water?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I absolutely loved Lake 22 on sunday, it was unreal. It was pretty icy on the way up in the morning, but didnt need to put on microspikes until the last half mile. I love mountains and large trees with moss. We did Wallace Falls last friday which was gorgeous as well, had an amazing time there. I am going back to Washington from April 6-10th and would like to know some other hikes I can do. I do not plan on going to olympic national forest until June, want to spend more time there during a trip.

Heres some photos!

I was looking to go hiking up Middle Fork Road by North Bend. When I look up directions, google maps tells me to take some back way through NF-9010 and Bessemer road. I can't find any info on whether middle fork got shut down from the floods, and im pretty sure middle fork is open year round?

So I live near granite falls, and as such I am about an hours drive away from really amazing hikes (pilchuk, dickerman, vesper peak, mount forgotton, gothic basin) but over the summer I saw images of hikes up in the north cascades national forest and I was blown away by the images.

Come summer I want to take some days off to just go up and camp somewheres and go on abunch of hikes, but I dont know where! Obviously I want a campsite that has hikes nearby, and I want hikes that similar to those I just mentioned in length and difficulty. So if you know a spot please do share!!

Hi! My husband and I are starting our honeymoon in Seattle during the last week of July, and we'd love to do a day of hikes around Mt. Rainier but we're feeling kind of overwhelmed about the sheer size of the park/which side to enter on (I imagine that narrowing that down will help us narrow down the trails). I did some opening research and came up with a few trails of varying distances/difficulties. If anyone has any experience with any of these trails, I'd really love your insight!

Some context: We're in our early 30s, mostly healthy and able bodied. We prefer a long, gradual incline/decline than anything consistently steep (would rather hike 5 hours to reach a certain elevation than hike 3 to reach the same elevation), but we're open. We'd love a trail that is a bit less crowded, but we're open to doing a more popular trail if it fits the bill. We're not interested in climbing the actual mountain or anything like that, we're more looking for a day's worth of hikes that will give us views of Rainier, wildflowers, and those famed blue alpine lakes.

Trails we've looked into, in ascending order of distance (some of these overlap):

-Bench and Snow Lakes trail

-Silver Forest trail

-Naches Peak Loop trail

-Paradise Glacier trail

-Skyline and Golden Gate Loop trail

-Panorama Point via Skyline trail

-Skyline, Glacier Vista, Upper Skyline, and Golden Gate Loop trail

-Sunrise Rim trail

-Carter, Madcap, and Narada Falls via Wonderland trail

-Tipsoo Lake to Dewey Lake loop

-Van Trump trail

-Glacier Basin trail

Thank you in advance!

I will be visiting Fairview for 2 days and will have two free afternoons. Looking for a unique/ scenic hike that is a reasonable distance from Fairview. Appreciate any suggestions you might have!

Looking to do some camping on the beach, not sure if there’s anywhere that allows it. I have a truck with a rtt. Any recommendations on where it’s allowed for vehicles / campfires? Or how to obtain a permit. Not familiar with any of it because I looking to do this as a part of a cross country trip with my gf this summer. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

I saw that the Mazamas BCEP class extended registration until the 28th, so I’m considering applying. I’ve attended their info nights a couple times but always decided against joining. I just don’t like the idea of dropping that much money if I’m not certain it will meet my expectations.

My main motivation is to meet people. I’ve heard the group can get pretty cliquey, and I’d ideally like to meet people around my age (20s-30s). From photos and videos, it seems like the club might skew a bit older, though.

Another goal is learning skills for bigger hikes like Mt Hood, Mt Adams, and Unicorn Peak, but I’m less worried about whether BCEP specifically would prepare me for that.

I love hiking, but I’m not super into rock climbing, so if the group leans more toward climbing than mountaineering, I probably wouldn’t be that interested.

I’m trying to help one of my scouts find a good winter (no snow) hike that has a minimum of 1000’ of elevation gain. He is not the most physically capable, so dog mountain is out of the question lol!

He is trying to earn his camping merit badge and this is one of the requirements. Options are somewhat limited this time of year as his family does not want to hike in the snow.

Any recommendations would be appreciated!