BIG DARK IS OFFICIALLY OVER! Fake spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It's sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and 70 degrees each day on the weekend in mid-March. Everyone knows this won't last, because it is of course, false spring, and we'll be back to rain and cooler temps very soon. As such, everyone simultaneously jumped out of their puffy winter coats and into their hiking pants. Forget the Vitamin D pills today, we all can just get outside!
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Near the beginning of the trail
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And get outside they did. We initially planned on going to Wallace Falls State Park to do the Wallace Falls trail. We knew it would likely be busy but we tried anyway. We aimed to get to the parking area of the trailhead around 10-ish. As we approached it was obviously we were already too late. There were signs a few roads away saying "WALLACE FALLS PARKING FULL". We continued on towards the trailhead because who knows, maybe someone left. Then we saw cars parking on the side of the road almost a half mile away from the parking lot. Not a good sign. Once we got to the parking lot...it was indeed full. And there were several cars circling around for a spot. We became engulfed in the circle dance of looking for a spot for only a brief moment before a State Park employee told us all to leave "There's no parking here!!". Well that sucks. We just drove in from Seattle.
Thankfully we're in Washington on Route 2, nonetheless. There's good hikes EVERYWHERE. We saw there was another trail not even a half mile away called May's Creek Trail so we headed over there. It's a really small parking area off of a short road near Gold Bar, WA. There were maybe 7 or 8 other cars there, but if there wasn't we'd be a little weirded out parking there, it seemed almost like private land. And it wasn't marked well as trailhead parking either. There wasn't even really a trailhead sign. It's obvious that this is not a frequently traveled path! There are no bathrooms on site, FYI. Luckily I went at the Wallace Falls trailhead parking lot before we were pushed away.
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Not far into the hike the trail crosses a logging road. Don't take the road, the trail continues beyond the road.
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Reading previous reviews of the trail, it seems that there has been upgrades and that it used to be a bit sketchier in the past. Oh well, we enjoyed it!
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This is a logging area. Thankfully there are areas designated to not be cut.
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Interestingly enough, I can find VERY little information on the trail. I only found it because it was on AllTrails as being near Wallace Falls. In fact, it's one of the only sites I can find on google that mentions May Creek Falls Trail at all. I guess we found a cute gem of a jaunt? Other sites call it the Reiter Foothills Forest Trails. The Sky Valley Vista Trail is part of this whole system as well. So whatever it's called...it was cute.
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Logging staging area on the logging road?
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The trail is technically shared with horses and mountain bikers, neither of which we saw. There were signs of past horses though... parts of the trail had horse poop all over, so keep your eyes open!
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idk i thought this was a cool rock wall
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The trail is roughly 6 miles and never gets intensely difficult. At no point were we out of breath due to elevation climbs. It was a nice first spring hike of 2024. The trail itself starts out kind of boring, just moving through some fields of brush. As the trail continues it moves more into the woods and becomes progressively more pretty. It's definitely a grower, not a shower of trail.
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First water feature of the hike!
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There are several water / creek crossings. I highly recommend waterproof hiking shoes. I'm not sure what it's like in the summer, but the water was flowing pretty good in March. I slipped off a rock into the water, so there you go!
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I'm not sure what these little dudes area, Great Mullein? They looked neat though!
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First Stream crossing of the hike. This one wasn't too deep or quick.
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An upwards view of the stream shows some small falls!
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All the trees are gone in this area of the trail :( On our way back we we're walking behind a husband and wife with two dogs. The husband didn't seem too nice and was haphazardly carrying a machete. The dude picked up one of his dogs to cross one of the streams while also...still carrying and stumbling with the machete. Some people...
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This treeless area has some great mountain views opposite it though!
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On a clear day like today you can even see the Olympic Mountains way in the back! Seeing the Olympics from the cascade foothills. Neat!
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A bigger stream crossing. The pictures don't do justice. It was pretty swift and actually fairly hard to easily cross. We managed...but my feet fell in. Now I have waterproof shoes, but they aren't waterproof when you get soaked above your ankles, LOL.
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The falls above the creek crossing. Thanks for the swift water!
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After the stream crossing there was a decent stretch of VERY muddy paths. Not only mud, but we were dodging horse poop fiercely on this stretch, playing Would You Rather? Horse Poop or Mud?
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Hooray, dry ground!
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The mist blowing off the falls was a nice touch on a warm spring day
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Looking over the rocks
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Downstream from the falls
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Now THAT'S a mountain!
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We made it to the top of the Sky Valley Vista Trail Viewpoint! You can see into the Skykomish Valley along with several mountains like Mt Index and Mt Persis!
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You can see Mt Baring peek out along the trail as well!
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| MUSHROOMS |
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| Always need to take a picture of a bridge when there's one right? This crosses the first stream so you don't have to. Standing quietly on the bridge the sound of the stream is broken only by the song of a Pacific Wren up in the trees. Such a peaceful day on a very secluded and less popular hike! |
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CAIRN BREWING
What to do? It's only like 3:30 PM and we're done with our hike but totally not done with the day. It's still beautiful out. There's only one thing TO do. Gain back all those calories we burned by drinking a beer of course!
On our way back to Seattle we stopped at Cairn Brewing right off of WA-522 (and the Burke Gilman!). I got Sippy Cup, an IPA of course and my GF got Bill's Pils a German Pilsner. Very solid beers!
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The delicious pilsner
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| The hazier the better right? My East Coast roots are showing |
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Dogs at a brewery? Yes please. Look at her!
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A sampler pack of tacos from the Birrieria Pepe El Toro food truck outside. We just shared. We don't want to gain ALL of our burned calories back :)
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