Carkeek Park ~ September 29th 2011

Carkeek Park is another great urban park with hiking trails! It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed being outside! This is another place that it is helpful to have a map so that you can figure out where you want to go. Some of the trails are marked with signs, but others aren't. I printed my own map from the link above, but I did notice that they had some pre-printed at some of the information signs as well. We didn't walk too far today as we had some younger kids with us, but we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along some of the trails. This would be a perfect place to introduce kids to hiking without having to drive a long way. Another benefit is being able to stop and head back to the car whenever your little one is tired. We followed the Lower Meadow Trail from the main parking area towards the beach access. From there we meandered along the North Bluff Trail, checking out the viewpoints along the way.

A little incline along here, but nothing too challenging.

From there we cutoff onto the North Meadow Hillclimb Trail until we reached the Grand Fir Trail. We followed the Grand Fir Trail until we reached the North Traverse. We walked down the 12th Ave. Hillclimb until we came back to the main parking area. We crossed through the parking area and wandered down the Piper's Creek Trail until we reached Piper's Orchard.

We saw a lot of these in one area along the Piper's Creek Trail. They appeared to be some
sort of art. They were made out of corrugated cardboard glued together and seemed to be
in a shelf fungus or hive shape.

A bridge along the Piper's Creek Trail

This is a beautiful old orchard full of heirloom variety apple trees. Lots of apples on the ground and in the trees. We had a lot of fun walking around and looking at the different trees.

This was a really interesting apple tree. It had two "tracks" worn into the trunks
that were just perfect for rolling some of the fallen apples down.

Here is the bottom of the track where the apples landed.

Some of the artwork that is scattered throughout the park with the orchard in the background

I saw a few mushrooms and other fungus.

This shelf fungus was beautiful!

Lots of beautiful colors out:

Stinging Nettle

Snowberries

A few of the yellow fall leaves in the creek

Happy Fall Trails!