Dosewallips State Park & Rocky Brook Falls

What happens when you hike in January in Western Washington?  You get wet, of course!  We definitely encountered rain on our hike at Dosewallips (pronounced doe-see-wall-ups per a local woman) State Park today along with sun, hail, snow & wind.  It was kind of a crazy weather day!

We hiked both the Steam Donkey Trail and the Maple Valley Trail which went down to the Dosewallips River.  Some highlights of the day: we saw 2 bald eagles, some large animal tracks (per the WTA description it appears there is an elk herd that resides there) and a really gorgeous waterfall (Rocky Brook Falls).  It was a small group, just me, Corey, Brenda & Pace, but we had a ton of fun!

Corey & Pace in the car.  Poor Pace got a bit car sick on the ride up there on all those windy roads & threw up all over Corey's sweatshirt.  Luckily Brenda had a spare fleece jacket in the car.

Brenda & Pace on the first of several bridges we crossed.

Corey, Pace & Susan on the 2nd bridge of the day.

Corey & Brenda

Some of the original train tracks.

Corey with some more old railroad items.

The top of a waterfall that we encountered.

The waterfall above was part of this Phantom Creek.

Peekaboo view of the Dosewallips River.

Corey next to some really cool roots on this tree.

Look closely and you will see the 2 bald eagles right in the upper middle of the picture on a branch.

We walked right down to the river and found some oyster & clam shells.

Corey & I next to a really cool tree.  How did it grow like that?

This is the Rocky Brook below the falls.

We were all in awe of these falls.  They were huge!  And you could get up really close to it.

Group photo:  Susan, Corey, Brenda & Pace.

Tolmie State Park

This morning's Yoh! hike was at Tolmie State Park.  December is a busy month for everyone, so we decided to do a shorter, close-in hike.  This is actually a very nice park.  I haven't been here in years and didn't really remember much about it.  The trails were a bit muddy, but in good shape.   The boardwalks, however, were slimy & slippery.  Luckily Michele was there to grab me when I slipped & almost fell off the side.   Even with my walking stick I manage to be clumsy.

 After the hike we headed down to the beach.  We saw a sea lion jumping out of the water by a boat.  I think they might have been feeding it fish, but it was hard to tell because they were so far out & the fog was quite thick.  It looks like dogs are allowed here because we saw several.  I'll have to take Winston here next summer.   He will have lots of fun exploring the beach.



Group photo using the camera timer: Sara, Michele, Clarissa and Susan.

On the trail.



Susan, Clarissa & Sara on the bridge to the beach.

Michele, Susan & Clarissa

Twanoh State Park

We woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground, but that didn't stop us from heading to our Yoh! hike at Twanoh State Park.  By the time we reached our destination not one flake of snow could be seen.  The snow around here doesn't stick around too long.  Although it was really cold, the sun came out to greet us.  The walk was short, just 2.3 miles round trip, but it was awesome.  We walked along a salmon-spawning creek which had tons of salmon.  We spent a lot of time just watching them swim upstream.  It was so cool!

Corey & Winston in the car waiting for others to meet us in West Olympia.

The snow covered Olympics as we were driving to Twanoh State Park.

Brenda & Pace

Kassia & Winston





Group photo: Susan, Brenda w/Pace, Winston, Corey & Kassia

The trees were amazing, so tall, and the trunks were huge.

View from parking area.   This is part of Hood Canal.