Rasar State Park Trails ~ May 26th, 2011

We lucked out with the weather again and had nice weather for our weekly hike! We got sprinkled on for a about 2 minutes while we ate lunch...but other than that it was partly cloudy - partly sunny. Enjoy beautiful views of the river, mountains and meadows. Nice flat easy to walk trails. Some of the trail is an ADA trail and is paved.....the other parts are grass, gravel or dirt.

I really wanted to check out Rasar State Park to see if it was some place that I might want to camp at in the future. I think it would be a great place to camp for a weekend. It is a really pretty park and has about 3.5 miles of really nice trails as well.

We had fun making some cairns on one of the river banks ~ this kept my kids busy for about 45 minutes.... :)

There was a llama and some goats in one of the farms adjacent to the park. The llama watched us intently the whole time we were within his field of vision.

Noteworthy plants I saw on the trail....

and fungus....

and.....last but not least....fungus being devoured by a slug.... :) Happy trails....

Coal Creek Trail (Cougar Mountain) ~ May 17 2011

It was a gorgeous day for a hike! I am so glad that we decided to explore the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. We hiked the Coal Creek Trail (about 3.5 miles round trip), but will definitely be back to explore other trails in the park!

We parked at the Red Town Trailhead where there is a large parking area. You need to cross the street from the parking area to access the Coal Creek Trail. There is a mine shaft that you can see a short way down the trail. It is blocked off for safety, but there is an interpretive sign that tells a bit about all of the mining that went on in the area. Right after the mine you come to a small waterfall.

The trail was well maintained....but we did run across water and mud on the trail. A little over a mile into the trail you come out onto a service type road....take a right onto this road and follow it for about 1/4 of a mile until you see the trail on the left hand side of the road right before you get to a big bend in the road. The Coal Creek Trail is an in and out trail....so when you have walked enough, or when you reach the end of the trail, just turn around and head back. I would definitely recommend a map, especially if you are going to try some of the other trails in the park. There is a big warning sign in the parking lot that tells about all of the mining that went on in the area and the importance of staying on the trails for safety reasons.

This was a chunk of coal left from one of the mines

Here are the flowers and plants that caught my eye:

And of course my fungus pictures:

And a clown millipede that we saw.....Happy trails!

Buck Island ~ Al Borlin Park trail ~ May 9, 2011

This is an easy, close to home hike. We started the hike at Al Borlin Park (in Monroe, WA) where there is plenty of parking.















There are about 2-3 miles worth of trails between Al Borlin Park and Lewis Street Park. There is a foot bridge that connects the two parks.

The trails are mainly flat and some follow the river, some follow the creek and some meander through the forest. There was mud and water on the trails (not surprising with all of the rain we've had!)

The kids had fun playing in this cool tree we found:

We also found a great log for crossing...

Some of the boys decided to pose for a picture by the river....I think they look like Charlie's Angels myself....heehee!

There was an old railroad trestle that you could walk around.....

Here are the flowers that I saw....and believe it or not, I didn't find any fungus to take pictures of!

There was a nice field around the area where the foot bridge is and the kids had lots of fun with the dandelion seeds!

Happy trails...... :)