March 19, 2025 • 18 mins
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Jennie and Craig share their favorite hikes across Washington State in spring, updated for 2025
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennie Flaming (00:05):
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking
podcast. I'm your host. JennieThwing Flaming,
Craig Romano (00:10):
and I'm your co host. Craig Romano
Jennie Flaming (00:12):
Craig and I are happy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive.
Hey, Craig, well, here we areofficially at the legal
(00:36):
beginning of spring. Yeah,
Craig Romano (00:39):
you know. And boy, it has been cooler than normal
this year, and I am so gladSpring is here.
Jennie Flaming (00:44):
Yeah, and you know, it's fun, because we
started this podcast in thespring, so it's been just over a
year, and it's been reallywonderful doing with this with
you. Thank you so much forsaying yes to being my co host.
Craig Romano (01:00):
It has been my pleasure. It's been a lot of
fun. We, you know, even after ayear we have, I mean, we're
never going to run out of thingsto talk about. So never.
Jennie Flaming (01:08):
And, you know, we were when we were talking
about, you know, in the secondyear of the pod, like, do we
want to redo some episodes, youknow? And, and our spring hikes
episode was one of our firstones. And, you know, folks
listening, if you want moreideas, definitely go back and
listen to that. But also, we're,we're a lot better at this now,
(01:32):
so I'm glad that we are doingspring hikes again. So I
Craig Romano (01:38):
should, I should reiterate, it's not that we're
better at hiking, and allsudden, we realize, boy, there's
all these great hikes that weneed to do. It's just we're
talking about them for somereason. Yes,
Jennie Flaming (01:51):
yes, yes. We have a whole year more of
experience working together onthis podcast. So you're ready,
and we do have another year ofexperience hiking. I will say,
like, I've done quite a few newhikes in the last year, and I've
done a few, yeah, cool. Okay,so, um, I'm, first of all, I I
(02:15):
have worked hard to learn tolove Spring. I think we talked
about this before spring justgoes on for so long here,
especially in westernWashington, it's like half the
year. It's such a long time. Butthere are, and I feel like this
meteorological spring, you know,that happens at the end of March
(02:37):
is like, I feel like we're kindof in spring by then, you know.
But then also, some people wouldsay it's 40 degrees and raining,
that's not spring, but thatcould happen in May. So I don't
know it's true. I feel like thedominating theme of spring
hiking is that it's totallyunpredictable.
Craig Romano (03:01):
That's very, very true. But why do we get excited
about it? Is unpredictable. Itcould still be cold, you know,
it could be warm, but one of theguarantees, whether it's cold,
warm, windy, whatever is thedaylight is longer, and that in
itself, is and there's flowers,and usually there are flowers. I
mean, matter of fact, they'realways flowers, even they're
always flowers. I mean, theskunk cabbage, you know, it has
(03:24):
come out in February, even whenit's cold, even though, right,
even those are wild. Yeah, theroadies come a little bit later.
We should talk about roadiestoo, because it is our state
flower. The Pacific rose engine,and it only grows in about less
(03:44):
than 10% of the state. So it'sinteresting, if I was going to
choose a state flower today,that would not be my choice,
although I love it beautiful,but I need someone's going to
represent the state better. Butthat's everywhere. Lupin would
be a great one. You know, I'mnot sure if any state has Lupin
as your, as your, as yourwildflower, I need to check
that. We
Jennie Flaming (04:05):
should try to figure that out. But, yeah, I'm
totally I love rhododendrons,but I agree with you that it's
like Eastern Washington doesn'thave rhododendrons. Yeah, areas
don't have them. Yeah,
Craig Romano (04:18):
yeah. It's a great flower, but it's just not
widespread. Yeah, so
Jennie Flaming (04:24):
spring is under unpredictable. Waterfalls are
amazing. There's snow at highaltitude, but it's, yeah, it's
crappy for snow sports, but,like, there's a lot of snow in
high alpine meadows still. Um,so let's talk about some
favorite go tos, either parts ofWashington or specific trails
(04:49):
for spring. What are some ofyours? Craig,
Craig Romano (04:52):
well, again, if, if we're having one of those
really cold, wet springs inwestern Washington, I'm looking
at Eastern Washington. I. Andone of the best, the anything
the Columbia Basin is great inthe spring, because it's just
too darn hot in the in thesummertime. In the fall, things
kind of get brown over theretoo. So spring could be really
(05:12):
nice. It could be green. Thewildflowers. Temperatures are
wonderful. It still gets cool atnight. So anything in the
channel, Scablands, steamboat,rock. It's a great area.
Northrop Canyon, which is alsoright next to it. Sun, Sun
Lakes, yeah, Beasley hillsoutside of afreda. I mean, these
(05:32):
are great places. And evenSpokane, yep. You know if you're
gonna make the trip, if you livethere, great if you're gonna
make the trip from the westside, look at places like the
Turnbull National WildlifeRefuge, which is out in a teeny
which is great. There's mooseout there. So, you know, animal,
the animals start having thebabies. You always, you know,
it's always a good chance ofseeing seeing some some young
(05:53):
ones. There some calves. Um,Riverside State Park is always a
great place. Flowers are comingout there. Dishman Hills, really
nice area in a spoke in theSpokane Valley. Great time to be
there. And then a little bitfarther south, I was just out
there last spring, and I forgothow much I love the area,
because it because where I live,it's one of the farthest places
in Washington to get to thePalouse. Kamiak Butte, yes, is
(06:17):
one of the best Wildflower.
Matter of fact, it's itrepresents like 3% of the of the
police area that has not beentilled or or settled. So you get
to see what, what the policeprairie actually looked like
before it was tilled. Theflowers are amazing. The views
are amazing out there. It's aincredible. Matter of fact, it's
one of my 100 classic hikes. So,yeah, great place.
Jennie Flaming (06:40):
Yeah, I agree with that. I think a couple
other places, and I agree withyou about Eastern Washington,
fantastic, warm, wild flowers,green and it's and those hills
are brown a lot of the year, butthey're green and like April and
May. So I totally agree. Acouple other specific hikes, I
(07:02):
would add. One is Chelan Butteor elephant head, like, um, near
Lake Chelan,
Craig Romano (07:09):
you're gonna see, you're gonna see bighorn sheep
there, yeah, yeah. And the
Jennie Flaming (07:12):
flowers up there are awesome and wonderful. You
know, the other what's thereally popular wildflower hike?
That's like sage hills.
Craig Romano (07:22):
Oh, yeah, I was just gonna talk, yeah, anything
in the Wenatchee area? Yeah,April, May is prime
Jennie Flaming (07:28):
and yes, Chelan Butte or elephant head, which is
part way just parted. You don'thave to go anywhere. Yeah, that
is a good alternative. That'sless crowded than sage hills, at
least, that's what I'veexperienced.
Craig Romano (07:40):
Sage hills are very, very popular mountain
bikers, trail runners, butthey've been expanding the area.
And there's, there's so much inthe wenasty foothills to check
out. Yep, yep. Absolutely likecashmere canyons is another one
of the a lot of people haven'tbeen there. Cool, well, it's the
Chelan Douglas Land Trust hasbeen really acquiring a lot of
(08:01):
property out there, and theyrequired this one a couple years
ago. It's in my day hikingcentral cascades book, a
wonderful place. It's privatelyowned, but there's an easement
on it. It's a 2000 acre preserveand about 10 miles of trails on
it. It is incredible. Dogs arenot allowed, and this is really
important, because the owner canpull the easement anytime if
(08:22):
people aren't aren't adhering tohis stipulations. So just show
up without rover. It is anincredible place to be
Jennie Flaming (08:29):
awesome. And one other eastern Washington place I
wanted to mention is, well,both. It's two places, but
they're close together, badgermountain and Candy Mountain near
the Tri Cities. I really likeCandy Mountain. Actually,
they're both great. And if youlike wine, there's, like, tons
(08:49):
of wineries, like,
Craig Romano (08:50):
right in the middle. It's right in the middle
of the Badgers. Also 100 classichikes, yeah, yeah.
Jennie Flaming (08:58):
I know it is. I know it's so cool. Hi everyone.
It's Jennie. I just wanted toquickly break into this spring
episode to tell you that I amoffering a special discount on
my hike planners and my Seattleseasonal hiking guide in my
shop. And you can get to theshop. It's shop dot ordinary
(09:20):
adventures.com, and the link isalways in the show notes. And if
you use the discount code spring30 you will get a 30% discount
through March 29 that's nextSaturday, and that is just to
welcome spring and say thank youfor listening to the podcast. I
(09:40):
also wanted to let you know thatthis is a great time to pick up
one of Craig's books, especiallythe Eastern Washington one, the
Olympic Peninsula one and thegorge one are ones that we talk
about a lot in the spring. Healso has a brand new book, A.
About urban hikes in Vancouver.
BC, we'll tell you more aboutthat in a couple weeks. All
(10:04):
right, back to the show. So whatabout other parts of the state?
What about the west side?
Craig Romano (10:12):
Oh, yeah, so I, I just want to reiterate, and
we're back in the Wenatcheearea, but I'm pulling our I'm
pulling West. Gonna another areathat a lot of hikers don't they
miss this area. Mountain bikersknow about it. Trail runners
will hit it too. The wholemission Creek area, the devil's
Gulch, all that you do not wantto be there in the summertime.
It is incredibly hot. Spring iswonderful. In there is old
(10:34):
growth, poderosa pines. Andagain, you're going to be seeing
a lot of the of the the forestflowers coming out. Great area.
Wildlife is amazing. It's one ofthe few places I've actually
seen Bobcat in there. I mean,Bobcat are everywhere, but I
just had a great encounter inthere. And we'll talk about
wildlife later. But anyways,that's a great area, so I would
definitely look there. And thenthe other we're going to go down
(10:56):
to Columbia, over the SilverStar area outside of Vancouver,
Washington. It's one of the fewplaces you can start getting up
really high up. You know, byMay, 4000 feet. The wildflowers
are incredible. It's in thealcohol burn area that is an
absolute must in late spring.
So, yep, the Met, how we kindof, we're still kind of, we're
(11:16):
still around the eastern sidePatterson Mountain, which is
right in Winthrop, is a classicwildflower hike and is superb in
April and May. So, oh, we'restill on the other side. I gotta
tell you. Know what my favoriteit seems like all my favorite
spring places are on the eastside of the crest, couch Canyon
and, oh yeah, hike. Those aregreat. But again, you don't want
(11:37):
to be in the summertime. They'reincredibly hot and they're
brown. In the fall, this springis a great time to be there.
Jennie Flaming (11:45):
I think couch Canyon is pretty great in the
fall. It has some really nicelittle color. Here's a little
color
Craig Romano (11:52):
I've always been in there in the spring, that
Cauchy Canyon Conservancy,again, they've been doing
amazing work protecting land.
They just expand it. You cancheck out their website. They
have just added on more moreplaces to protecting miles and
miles of trails hiking within acouple minute drive from Yakima.
Yep, awesome.
Jennie Flaming (12:12):
Okay, so west side. Now, I agree with you,
spring is where it's at forEastern Washington, and Eastern
Washington is where it's at forspring. In this state, it's
amazing, okay, but that said onthe west side, we are still
having a lot of rain, lot ofclouds, some warm days, some
(12:33):
cold days. That's what we havein spring. So moving over West
what are some of your favorites?
Well, you
Craig Romano (12:39):
know, Jennie, you did a whole program on it.
Whidbey Island is a great place.
You know, Evie is landing. Iswonderful in the springtime.
It's one of the few places inwestern Washington you're going
to see cactus. You get to lookhard, but it's there lots of
flowers, the bald eagles.
Wonderful place. And with thatsaid, if we go across, across
(13:00):
the inlet to the OlympicPeninsula. A lot of the the
valley hikes on the Hood Canalside are make wonderful spring
hikes, like in a staircase area.
And you can hike. You can hikeup the South Fork or the North
Fork. It was a comish 1010, 12miles in spring. So you can
these are areas where you'reitching to backpacking. You can
backpack in this area. Then youcan't get into the high country,
(13:23):
yet, it's still pretty big.
These valleys, very, very longvalley hikes you can go in
there. That's that's a good, agood area. Same thing the coast,
the Dungeness Spit, you know, westart looking at the coastal
areas around four towns, andthere's some nice coastal hikes
you can do in that region. Andthen again, we're going all the
way around the rainforest. Aregreat in the spring, they're
(13:47):
wet, they're really wet, but notas wet in the wintertime and the
summer, crowds haven't arrivedyet. Now, mind you, the whole
whole rainforest, the road iswashed out right now. Who knows
what's going on with that? Yeah,but bogus shield is really,
really easy to get to. The IrishSpring loop is a wonderful
family friendly and dogfriendly. It's in the National
Forest. You can check that out.
And then the Quinault area very,very accessible this time of
(14:09):
year. So those make great, greathikes for the springtime as
well.
Jennie Flaming (14:14):
Yeah. And you know Craig, one of the most
popular all time articles on mywebsite is about visiting
Olympic National Park in April.
And it's interesting because Iwrote that article kind of on a
whim after being there in Aprilwith my nieces during their
spring break, and when I workedas a guide there, I was like,
(14:36):
you know, April is pretty greatif you know where to go. And you
know that, like, the highcountry is not where it's at
that time of year, right? It'smore beaches, rivers,
rainforest, but it's a wonderfultime to go to those places.
Craig Romano (14:56):
Absolutely, the beaches are incredible that time
of year. You know, a lot. Ifpeople go out to the Olympic
coast in the summer, and summerstend to be, they're they're
foggy. You have that cold, coldocean water, warm air, and
they're foggy. My best hikes outthere have been the fall. In the
spring. Go to places like likethe lake oz area in the
springtime is amazing. Andagain, you have long daylight,
(15:18):
so you can get, you know, eighto'clock, more for the sunsets
and you don't have the crowds.
And again, if you're looking fora place to backpack early in the
season, the Olympic coast isanother great place to for early
season backpacking. Yep,
Jennie Flaming (15:35):
for sure, cool anywhere. I mean, the only other
place that I would really wantto highlight is the islands,
which you already touched on,Craig and last year, when we did
our spring episode, we talkedabout turtle back on Orcas
Island. Wonderful hike, reallyanytime, but the
Craig Romano (15:54):
San Juans are great again, just for the same
reasons. The springtime, theweather's wonderful there. The
summer crowds haven't, haven'tarrived yet. It's a it's a great
time to be in the San JuanIslands
Jennie Flaming (16:05):
and the islands that you mentioned, you know,
that we've talked about beforewith Whidbey Vashon Bainbridge
and or, you know, all theislands. Is a great time for all
the islands. Yeah.
Craig Romano (16:18):
And likewise, people don't tend to think of
this area hiking as much, butLong Beach down, and I know
Jennie, we've talked led betterpoint, though, the trails are
flooded until early summer, sobut yeah, tell you late, late
spring, if it's warm and you'reflooded, you just, you know,
they're great to wait duringthat time of year. It's very,
(16:38):
very cold in the winter time,but it's Yeah, but there's some
great hikes. A whole new networkof trails on the South Bay in
the will of will open NationalWildlife Refuge. I have them
highlighted in my upcoming thirdedition of the day hiking
Olympic book, so you can checkout the whole net new network of
trails there. So that's a greatplace also in the springtime.
And then, of course, we'vetalked about this ad nauseam,
(16:59):
but the Columbia River Gorge isprime in the spring, the flowers
are incredible. In thespringtime, the waterfalls are
roaring. That's one of the besttimes to be in the gorge. And
you will not be alone in thegorge. In the spring,
Jennie Flaming (17:11):
you will not it's very busy there, but it's
cool. All right, before we wrapup, I want to just mention to
everybody listening that if youwant to support the podcast, you
can, number one, leave us a tip,which we really appreciate.
Thank you. The other thing youcan do that really helps us is
leave us a rating and or areview that really helps with
(17:35):
other people finding thepodcast, and helps us be able to
grow keep bringing you thepodcast. Thank you so much for
listening. Happy Spring. You.
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking
podcast. I'm your host. JennieThwing Flaming,
Craig Romano (00:10):
and I'm your co host. Craig Romano
Jennie Flaming (00:12):
Craig and I are happy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive.
Hey, Craig, well, here we areofficially at the legal
(00:36):
beginning of spring. Yeah,
Craig Romano (00:39):
you know. And boy, it has been cooler than normal
this year, and I am so gladSpring is here.
Jennie Flaming (00:44):
Yeah, and you know, it's fun, because we
started this podcast in thespring, so it's been just over a
year, and it's been reallywonderful doing with this with
you. Thank you so much forsaying yes to being my co host.
Craig Romano (01:00):
It has been my pleasure. It's been a lot of
fun. We, you know, even after ayear we have, I mean, we're
never going to run out of thingsto talk about. So never.
Jennie Flaming (01:08):
And, you know, we were when we were talking
about, you know, in the secondyear of the pod, like, do we
want to redo some episodes, youknow? And, and our spring hikes
episode was one of our firstones. And, you know, folks
listening, if you want moreideas, definitely go back and
listen to that. But also, we're,we're a lot better at this now,
(01:32):
so I'm glad that we are doingspring hikes again. So I
Craig Romano (01:38):
should, I should reiterate, it's not that we're
better at hiking, and allsudden, we realize, boy, there's
all these great hikes that weneed to do. It's just we're
talking about them for somereason. Yes,
Jennie Flaming (01:51):
yes, yes. We have a whole year more of
experience working together onthis podcast. So you're ready,
and we do have another year ofexperience hiking. I will say,
like, I've done quite a few newhikes in the last year, and I've
done a few, yeah, cool. Okay,so, um, I'm, first of all, I I
(02:15):
have worked hard to learn tolove Spring. I think we talked
about this before spring justgoes on for so long here,
especially in westernWashington, it's like half the
year. It's such a long time. Butthere are, and I feel like this
meteorological spring, you know,that happens at the end of March
(02:37):
is like, I feel like we're kindof in spring by then, you know.
But then also, some people wouldsay it's 40 degrees and raining,
that's not spring, but thatcould happen in May. So I don't
know it's true. I feel like thedominating theme of spring
hiking is that it's totallyunpredictable.
Craig Romano (03:01):
That's very, very true. But why do we get excited
about it? Is unpredictable. Itcould still be cold, you know,
it could be warm, but one of theguarantees, whether it's cold,
warm, windy, whatever is thedaylight is longer, and that in
itself, is and there's flowers,and usually there are flowers. I
mean, matter of fact, they'realways flowers, even they're
always flowers. I mean, theskunk cabbage, you know, it has
(03:24):
come out in February, even whenit's cold, even though, right,
even those are wild. Yeah, theroadies come a little bit later.
We should talk about roadiestoo, because it is our state
flower. The Pacific rose engine,and it only grows in about less
(03:44):
than 10% of the state. So it'sinteresting, if I was going to
choose a state flower today,that would not be my choice,
although I love it beautiful,but I need someone's going to
represent the state better. Butthat's everywhere. Lupin would
be a great one. You know, I'mnot sure if any state has Lupin
as your, as your, as yourwildflower, I need to check
that. We
Jennie Flaming (04:05):
should try to figure that out. But, yeah, I'm
totally I love rhododendrons,but I agree with you that it's
like Eastern Washington doesn'thave rhododendrons. Yeah, areas
don't have them. Yeah,
Craig Romano (04:18):
yeah. It's a great flower, but it's just not
widespread. Yeah, so
Jennie Flaming (04:24):
spring is under unpredictable. Waterfalls are
amazing. There's snow at highaltitude, but it's, yeah, it's
crappy for snow sports, but,like, there's a lot of snow in
high alpine meadows still. Um,so let's talk about some
favorite go tos, either parts ofWashington or specific trails
(04:49):
for spring. What are some ofyours? Craig,
Craig Romano (04:52):
well, again, if, if we're having one of those
really cold, wet springs inwestern Washington, I'm looking
at Eastern Washington. I. Andone of the best, the anything
the Columbia Basin is great inthe spring, because it's just
too darn hot in the in thesummertime. In the fall, things
kind of get brown over theretoo. So spring could be really
(05:12):
nice. It could be green. Thewildflowers. Temperatures are
wonderful. It still gets cool atnight. So anything in the
channel, Scablands, steamboat,rock. It's a great area.
Northrop Canyon, which is alsoright next to it. Sun, Sun
Lakes, yeah, Beasley hillsoutside of afreda. I mean, these
(05:32):
are great places. And evenSpokane, yep. You know if you're
gonna make the trip, if you livethere, great if you're gonna
make the trip from the westside, look at places like the
Turnbull National WildlifeRefuge, which is out in a teeny
which is great. There's mooseout there. So, you know, animal,
the animals start having thebabies. You always, you know,
it's always a good chance ofseeing seeing some some young
(05:53):
ones. There some calves. Um,Riverside State Park is always a
great place. Flowers are comingout there. Dishman Hills, really
nice area in a spoke in theSpokane Valley. Great time to be
there. And then a little bitfarther south, I was just out
there last spring, and I forgothow much I love the area,
because it because where I live,it's one of the farthest places
in Washington to get to thePalouse. Kamiak Butte, yes, is
(06:17):
one of the best Wildflower.
Matter of fact, it's itrepresents like 3% of the of the
police area that has not beentilled or or settled. So you get
to see what, what the policeprairie actually looked like
before it was tilled. Theflowers are amazing. The views
are amazing out there. It's aincredible. Matter of fact, it's
one of my 100 classic hikes. So,yeah, great place.
Jennie Flaming (06:40):
Yeah, I agree with that. I think a couple
other places, and I agree withyou about Eastern Washington,
fantastic, warm, wild flowers,green and it's and those hills
are brown a lot of the year, butthey're green and like April and
May. So I totally agree. Acouple other specific hikes, I
(07:02):
would add. One is Chelan Butteor elephant head, like, um, near
Lake Chelan,
Craig Romano (07:09):
you're gonna see, you're gonna see bighorn sheep
there, yeah, yeah. And the
Jennie Flaming (07:12):
flowers up there are awesome and wonderful. You
know, the other what's thereally popular wildflower hike?
That's like sage hills.
Craig Romano (07:22):
Oh, yeah, I was just gonna talk, yeah, anything
in the Wenatchee area? Yeah,April, May is prime
Jennie Flaming (07:28):
and yes, Chelan Butte or elephant head, which is
part way just parted. You don'thave to go anywhere. Yeah, that
is a good alternative. That'sless crowded than sage hills, at
least, that's what I'veexperienced.
Craig Romano (07:40):
Sage hills are very, very popular mountain
bikers, trail runners, butthey've been expanding the area.
And there's, there's so much inthe wenasty foothills to check
out. Yep, yep. Absolutely likecashmere canyons is another one
of the a lot of people haven'tbeen there. Cool, well, it's the
Chelan Douglas Land Trust hasbeen really acquiring a lot of
(08:01):
property out there, and theyrequired this one a couple years
ago. It's in my day hikingcentral cascades book, a
wonderful place. It's privatelyowned, but there's an easement
on it. It's a 2000 acre preserveand about 10 miles of trails on
it. It is incredible. Dogs arenot allowed, and this is really
important, because the owner canpull the easement anytime if
(08:22):
people aren't aren't adhering tohis stipulations. So just show
up without rover. It is anincredible place to be
Jennie Flaming (08:29):
awesome. And one other eastern Washington place I
wanted to mention is, well,both. It's two places, but
they're close together, badgermountain and Candy Mountain near
the Tri Cities. I really likeCandy Mountain. Actually,
they're both great. And if youlike wine, there's, like, tons
(08:49):
of wineries, like,
Craig Romano (08:50):
right in the middle. It's right in the middle
of the Badgers. Also 100 classichikes, yeah, yeah.
Jennie Flaming (08:58):
I know it is. I know it's so cool. Hi everyone.
It's Jennie. I just wanted toquickly break into this spring
episode to tell you that I amoffering a special discount on
my hike planners and my Seattleseasonal hiking guide in my
shop. And you can get to theshop. It's shop dot ordinary
(09:20):
adventures.com, and the link isalways in the show notes. And if
you use the discount code spring30 you will get a 30% discount
through March 29 that's nextSaturday, and that is just to
welcome spring and say thank youfor listening to the podcast. I
(09:40):
also wanted to let you know thatthis is a great time to pick up
one of Craig's books, especiallythe Eastern Washington one, the
Olympic Peninsula one and thegorge one are ones that we talk
about a lot in the spring. Healso has a brand new book, A.
About urban hikes in Vancouver.
BC, we'll tell you more aboutthat in a couple weeks. All
(10:04):
right, back to the show. So whatabout other parts of the state?
What about the west side?
Craig Romano (10:12):
Oh, yeah, so I, I just want to reiterate, and
we're back in the Wenatcheearea, but I'm pulling our I'm
pulling West. Gonna another areathat a lot of hikers don't they
miss this area. Mountain bikersknow about it. Trail runners
will hit it too. The wholemission Creek area, the devil's
Gulch, all that you do not wantto be there in the summertime.
It is incredibly hot. Spring iswonderful. In there is old
(10:34):
growth, poderosa pines. Andagain, you're going to be seeing
a lot of the of the the forestflowers coming out. Great area.
Wildlife is amazing. It's one ofthe few places I've actually
seen Bobcat in there. I mean,Bobcat are everywhere, but I
just had a great encounter inthere. And we'll talk about
wildlife later. But anyways,that's a great area, so I would
definitely look there. And thenthe other we're going to go down
(10:56):
to Columbia, over the SilverStar area outside of Vancouver,
Washington. It's one of the fewplaces you can start getting up
really high up. You know, byMay, 4000 feet. The wildflowers
are incredible. It's in thealcohol burn area that is an
absolute must in late spring.
So, yep, the Met, how we kindof, we're still kind of, we're
(11:16):
still around the eastern sidePatterson Mountain, which is
right in Winthrop, is a classicwildflower hike and is superb in
April and May. So, oh, we'restill on the other side. I gotta
tell you. Know what my favoriteit seems like all my favorite
spring places are on the eastside of the crest, couch Canyon
and, oh yeah, hike. Those aregreat. But again, you don't want
(11:37):
to be in the summertime. They'reincredibly hot and they're
brown. In the fall, this springis a great time to be there.
Jennie Flaming (11:45):
I think couch Canyon is pretty great in the
fall. It has some really nicelittle color. Here's a little
color
Craig Romano (11:52):
I've always been in there in the spring, that
Cauchy Canyon Conservancy,again, they've been doing
amazing work protecting land.
They just expand it. You cancheck out their website. They
have just added on more moreplaces to protecting miles and
miles of trails hiking within acouple minute drive from Yakima.
Yep, awesome.
Jennie Flaming (12:12):
Okay, so west side. Now, I agree with you,
spring is where it's at forEastern Washington, and Eastern
Washington is where it's at forspring. In this state, it's
amazing, okay, but that said onthe west side, we are still
having a lot of rain, lot ofclouds, some warm days, some
(12:33):
cold days. That's what we havein spring. So moving over West
what are some of your favorites?
Well, you
Craig Romano (12:39):
know, Jennie, you did a whole program on it.
Whidbey Island is a great place.
You know, Evie is landing. Iswonderful in the springtime.
It's one of the few places inwestern Washington you're going
to see cactus. You get to lookhard, but it's there lots of
flowers, the bald eagles.
Wonderful place. And with thatsaid, if we go across, across
(13:00):
the inlet to the OlympicPeninsula. A lot of the the
valley hikes on the Hood Canalside are make wonderful spring
hikes, like in a staircase area.
And you can hike. You can hikeup the South Fork or the North
Fork. It was a comish 1010, 12miles in spring. So you can
these are areas where you'reitching to backpacking. You can
backpack in this area. Then youcan't get into the high country,
(13:23):
yet, it's still pretty big.
These valleys, very, very longvalley hikes you can go in
there. That's that's a good, agood area. Same thing the coast,
the Dungeness Spit, you know, westart looking at the coastal
areas around four towns, andthere's some nice coastal hikes
you can do in that region. Andthen again, we're going all the
way around the rainforest. Aregreat in the spring, they're
(13:47):
wet, they're really wet, but notas wet in the wintertime and the
summer, crowds haven't arrivedyet. Now, mind you, the whole
whole rainforest, the road iswashed out right now. Who knows
what's going on with that? Yeah,but bogus shield is really,
really easy to get to. The IrishSpring loop is a wonderful
family friendly and dogfriendly. It's in the National
Forest. You can check that out.
And then the Quinault area very,very accessible this time of
(14:09):
year. So those make great, greathikes for the springtime as
well.
Jennie Flaming (14:14):
Yeah. And you know Craig, one of the most
popular all time articles on mywebsite is about visiting
Olympic National Park in April.
And it's interesting because Iwrote that article kind of on a
whim after being there in Aprilwith my nieces during their
spring break, and when I workedas a guide there, I was like,
(14:36):
you know, April is pretty greatif you know where to go. And you
know that, like, the highcountry is not where it's at
that time of year, right? It'smore beaches, rivers,
rainforest, but it's a wonderfultime to go to those places.
Craig Romano (14:56):
Absolutely, the beaches are incredible that time
of year. You know, a lot. Ifpeople go out to the Olympic
coast in the summer, and summerstend to be, they're they're
foggy. You have that cold, coldocean water, warm air, and
they're foggy. My best hikes outthere have been the fall. In the
spring. Go to places like likethe lake oz area in the
springtime is amazing. Andagain, you have long daylight,
(15:18):
so you can get, you know, eighto'clock, more for the sunsets
and you don't have the crowds.
And again, if you're looking fora place to backpack early in the
season, the Olympic coast isanother great place to for early
season backpacking. Yep,
Jennie Flaming (15:35):
for sure, cool anywhere. I mean, the only other
place that I would really wantto highlight is the islands,
which you already touched on,Craig and last year, when we did
our spring episode, we talkedabout turtle back on Orcas
Island. Wonderful hike, reallyanytime, but the
Craig Romano (15:54):
San Juans are great again, just for the same
reasons. The springtime, theweather's wonderful there. The
summer crowds haven't, haven'tarrived yet. It's a it's a great
time to be in the San JuanIslands
Jennie Flaming (16:05):
and the islands that you mentioned, you know,
that we've talked about beforewith Whidbey Vashon Bainbridge
and or, you know, all theislands. Is a great time for all
the islands. Yeah.
Craig Romano (16:18):
And likewise, people don't tend to think of
this area hiking as much, butLong Beach down, and I know
Jennie, we've talked led betterpoint, though, the trails are
flooded until early summer, sobut yeah, tell you late, late
spring, if it's warm and you'reflooded, you just, you know,
they're great to wait duringthat time of year. It's very,
(16:38):
very cold in the winter time,but it's Yeah, but there's some
great hikes. A whole new networkof trails on the South Bay in
the will of will open NationalWildlife Refuge. I have them
highlighted in my upcoming thirdedition of the day hiking
Olympic book, so you can checkout the whole net new network of
trails there. So that's a greatplace also in the springtime.
And then, of course, we'vetalked about this ad nauseam,
(16:59):
but the Columbia River Gorge isprime in the spring, the flowers
are incredible. In thespringtime, the waterfalls are
roaring. That's one of the besttimes to be in the gorge. And
you will not be alone in thegorge. In the spring,
Jennie Flaming (17:11):
you will not it's very busy there, but it's
cool. All right, before we wrapup, I want to just mention to
everybody listening that if youwant to support the podcast, you
can, number one, leave us a tip,which we really appreciate.
Thank you. The other thing youcan do that really helps us is
leave us a rating and or areview that really helps with
(17:35):
other people finding thepodcast, and helps us be able to
grow keep bringing you thepodcast. Thank you so much for
listening. Happy Spring. You.
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