April 23, 2025 • 22 mins
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Jennie and Craig talk about their favorite lowland hikes to lakes, waterfalls and along rivers and forests in Snohomish County.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennie Flaming (00:00):
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking
(00:07):
podcast. I'm your host. JennieThwing Flaming,
Craig Romano (00:10):
and I'm your co host. Craig Romano, Craig
Jennie Flaming (00:12):
and I are happy to have you here. We provide
practical and timely, seasonalhiking advice for hikers, trail
runners and potential hikers andtrail runners of all skill and
ability levels that is helpful,accurate, fun and inclusive. Hi
everyone. This is the third andfinal episode in this three part
(00:35):
series about awesome hikes inSnohomish County. Thank you so
much to Snohomish County tourismfor sponsoring the Washington
State hiking podcast for themonth of April. All right,
Craig, well, this is the last ofour three part series about
awesome Snohomish County hikes,and thanks again to our sponsor,
(00:58):
Snohomish County tourism forsponsoring us for the month of
April, that is so wonderful. Andjust want to mention again that
they also have a wonderfulpodcast called Snohomish County
place makers that Craig and Iwere recently guests on, and
they came on to our show acouple weeks ago. So this has
(01:20):
been a really fun collaboration.
So we
Craig Romano (01:23):
really want to emphasize, too, the
accessibility of the hikes inSnohomish County, especially if
you live in the Seattle area.
Yeah, really close. And also,you know when you're coming back
for your opera, opera hike, youknow, your post hike, lots of
great places definitely supporta local business. Yes, you know,
getting espresso, brewpubdinner, all kinds of options you
can find on their website. Soyeah, definitely.
Jennie Flaming (01:48):
Two weeks ago, in our episode, we talked about
some of those, some of thosefavorites as well. So cool. So
Craig today, to kind of wrapthis up, we're talking about
lowland hikes. So last week, wetalked about mountains. Two
weeks ago, we talked withRichard and Nick about some of
their favorites, and some foodand drink and lodging places and
(02:11):
some urban hikes. So today we'rereally talking about kind of
rivers, forests, more low landhikes. And so I'd love to know
what are some of your favorites?
Craig Romano (02:23):
Yeah, let's, let's emphasize too. Jennie, this is a
perfect segue on this, ourepisode about the high country.
You can't get to a lot of thoseplaces right now. It's still
winter up there. So this, youknow, put, make your notes where
you want, where you want to hikea couple months from now. This
is where you what we're going totalk about today is where you
can, you can go out today, rightnow, right after you finish, if
(02:45):
you're driving to the trailheadright now. So, you know, the
western part of the county isdefinitely more urbanized, so
that's where you're going tohave some great urban, urban
trails, close to town, a lot ofplaces that it's perfect for
going for a walk and thenstopping in at your favorite
brew pub or or cafe. So in, youknow, right, right in, in
Everett. I know, I know Nick hadtalked about some of his
(03:06):
favorite hikes, the the milltown, which is right in the
heart of the city, a greatplace, but right outside. I
mean, in the city limits, stillin the city, it's going to feel
very, very different, the langusriverfront and the Spencer
Island, which is in the in theSnohomish River Delta, and
that's what this is kind of acool place. I mean, you got the
highway there, so you get thehighway noise, so you can block
(03:27):
that out. You can hike in thisarea, in the Delta, and when
it's foggy, you're going to feellike you're in the South. You're
going to feel like you're downin Louisiana. Except, I mean,
it's not no magnolia trees oralligators, but it has that,
that that buy you feeling whensun comes out and it does come
out in every it does. You'regoing to have that those
(03:48):
bottlenecks. And you can seeMount Rainier across the way,
and realize, sorry, I'm notLouisiana. In mount Pilchuck,
you'll see across the way this,and it's great for burning. It's
actually, it's one of the bestburning hot spots in the Puget
Sound area, the the langusriverfront part is paved, so
that's a paved trail. You can dothat. And then you, you cross
onto the island on an oldJackknife bridge that was
(04:10):
brought in from a differentarea. So that's been, it's a
historic bridge. And then youcan hike. You can hike on, on,
on these, on the Delta, in thedelta. So, so really cool place.
Jennie Flaming (04:22):
So this is just to sort of review for everyone,
because I bet most people arenot familiar with this at all.
This is in the city of Everett,along, sort of at the delta of
the Snohomish river. So theSnohomish river flows down from
the mountains and out throughSnohomish Surprise, surprise,
(04:44):
and around the city of Everettand then out there. So just
wanted to sort of center thatfor folks where we're actually
talking about,
Craig Romano (04:54):
you know, and why we're talking about so here's a
little factoid you may or maynot know, the Snohomish river
itself is actually pretty sure.
Pretty short. It's formed by thesky com ish, you know, and the
Snoqualmie. And so where thoserivers with the confluence, then
you've got the Snohomish and soperfect segue. Right below that,
that area, you've got a coupleof great places to hike. First
of all, I got Lord Hill, whichis, which is Snohomish County's
(05:16):
largest county park. I thinkit's about 415, 100 acres, miles
and miles of trails, about 20miles of real good trails. And
then there's, there's moreprimitive trails. I love it for
running a lot of the old roadsin there. It's great for taking
kids. There's some there's somesmall ponds, and there's some
wetlands. There are actuallysome few areas too, even though
it's mostly forested. But thereare a few, few areas where you
(05:38):
get views out across theconfluence of the river and out
towards Mount Rainier. This is agreat place. It's right between
the town of Snohomish andMonroe. Wonderful, wonderful
park. If you've never beenthere, you can, you can actually
mountain bike there. You canhorseback ride there to Great
Park. But along the river on theother side, this is always a
mouthful. There's the the mountairman, the Bob airman, the
(06:02):
full. It's by the Bob airmanwetland area. I gotta look at
the full. The full thing is theconfluence of Thomas Eddie. It's
a long name. It's called, we'llcall it the Bob airman Park, uh,
who was Bob airman? He was, hewas a duck hunter, um, and this
was an area on the river. That
Jennie Flaming (06:22):
was an Army still talking about the
Snohomish River.
Craig Romano (06:25):
We're right on.
We're on the snow. We'reliterally on the Snohomish
river. So this, this is an andLord Hill is on, is on the north
side of the river. In the airmanPark is on the south side of the
river. And this was a quarry atone point, and it has these
beautiful oxbow lakes. They'rethe wintertime swans winter down
here. But this is baffles methat I believe in the 1970s
(06:46):
somebody wants to put a housingdevelopment in here. First of
all, it's just insane, becauseit's on a flood plain. It's
absolutely ridiculous. Butmister airman led the the cost
to protect this area becauseit's incredible wildlife
habitat. So this is a place youcould check out a totally
different mood of the river.
(07:06):
Hiking here. Great birdwatching. So check this place
out too. This is you access thisfrom Snohomish on the south side
of the river. So that's a greatplace too. Again, you know,
going upriver a little more nowwe're actually going to be on
the sky COVID River, becausewe're north of Monroe, one of my
favorite places for local easierclose close to the city. Place
(07:30):
are the Osprey trails in Sultanit's a whole network of trails
here. And there's bridges thatgo over. And this is an area
that was mitigated when, whenthe dam at Spada Lake, which is
Everett's water watershed. NowWater Drinking water was being
reauthorized and all that theythey enhanced some some wildlife
habitat down below for salmon.
So it's a great place to see aspawning salmon. Lots of
(07:53):
channels. You can walk on thesebridges. Kids will absolutely
love it. So that's a really coolplace. Wow.
Jennie Flaming (08:00):
Yeah, yeah. Love it. Those are wonderful
suggestions. One of the onesthat comes to mind for me, which
I'm not going to talk about alot right now, teaser is because
Marissa, who's going to be ourguest next week, when we're
talking about hiking with kids.
She talks about this hike alittle more, but meadowdale
(08:23):
Beach Park, which is kind ofthere in kind of between Edmonds
and Mukilteo, that's a great,great trail, but we'll talk more
about that
Craig Romano (08:34):
next week. That's a great one. And, and I don't
Yeah, other areas for kids andlocal in that region too. You
know, right in busy Lynwood, ifyou've never taken the time, is
scriber lake in that area, andit's a little park, but there's
actually with scriber Brook,there's a paved trail so you can
walk farther, but it's got afloating bridge. It's a floating
(08:55):
bridge, and that's a greatplace. I remember when I was
working in the research in myurban trails, every book, taking
my son there, really like thatplace. Yeah. And then right in
Edmonds too, there's not majorhikes along the water. It's a
wonderful waterfront, but it's,you know, you have the marsh
there, and you can walk. You canwalk kind of a paid path around
the marsh. That's really nice.
And then Yost Park. Yost Park isa really nice place, yeah, to
(09:15):
you can walk a couple miles inthere too. And a lot of people
outside of Edmonds aren't awareof it because it's kind of
tucked in there a little Yes,that's a nice place.
Jennie Flaming (09:28):
People who know Yoast Park would know it for its
outdoor swimming pool. Oh yeah,but there are really cool trails
and forestry as well. You
Craig Romano (09:37):
can do a couple miles in there easily as well.
So again, this is right in theurban areas. Again, right on the
on the edge of of of the urbanpact. So this is going more
towards outside of Bothell,towards Monroe, is para is
paradise, Paradise ValleyParadise Valley Park. Yup,
(09:58):
that's another, really. Really,it's a large park. It's, it's
well over 1000 acres. Halfwayhasn't been developed yet, but
there's, I think there's wellover 10 miles of trails there.
It's pretty gentle terrain. Soit's, again, it's great for
kids. It's great for running.
This is near Maltby, over inthat area. This, this is another
really nice place. If you justgot a couple hours, you need to
(10:19):
get out, want to do some walk,you can, you could easily spend,
you know, half a day or morethere. Well, it's trails. So
these are all good ones you cando right now. Now you want to go
a little bit farther into, intothe back country, along rivers.
Okay, I'm going to, I'm going tosend you to Granite Falls and
over, over in this area is thelime kiln trail, yes, which is a
(10:41):
wonderful, wonderful trail. Ifyou're history, it's you're
going to hike down on theoriginal railroad that connected
Everett to the ghost town MonteCristo that I talked about
later. And this, this, thisrailroads, amazing, built on in
this canyon along, you know,this river valley. Brutal, hard
work, most of it, you know, hardimmigrant labor, putting this
(11:03):
together. And then you'll get toa restored lime kiln. One of
the, one of the these should bethese lime kilns all over the
place out here, and there's ahandful that are still left.
It's a great one out in the SanJuan Islands. This is one of the
great ones here too. You cancheck this out. And
unfortunately, I've been hikingthis area for about 25 years. A
lot of the artifacts in the airhave disappeared. People have
taken stuff. Please don't dothat. This is part of part of
(11:24):
our heritage. There used to beall kinds of saw blades and
bricks, you know, in bed, but alot of that stuff has
disappeared. Imagine that. It'sreally sad. This is part of our
heritage, and it's really coolto see this stuff out here. So
this is about a seven mile hikeyou can do to go down there. You
kind of start up through someold cut, old forest, everything
(11:45):
you drop down into the canyon.
There's old growth, spectacularhike that's usually accessible
year round. Yep.
Jennie Flaming (11:57):
Our sponsor for the month of April is Snohomish
County Tourism woven into thefabric and landscape of
Snohomish County, Washington are1400 plus square miles of forest
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(12:18):
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on their social accounts. Thankyou. Visit Snohomish County now
back to the show.
Craig Romano (13:24):
Yeah, Jennie, you have some. I have more. So if
you you uncrimed. Well,
Jennie Flaming (13:27):
um, lime kiln was actually one of the biggest
ones that I wanted to talkabout, and you already did. So I
think the only thing I would addto what you said about lime
kiln, Craig, is that it's notsuper steep, right? So, you
know, because it's on a railroadbed, so that makes sense, um,
but it's a place where you cango quite a distance, um, without
(13:51):
too much climbing. Andpersonally, I love that for a
rainy day, because doing a lotof uphill when I'm wearing a
rain jacket. I don't like that.
So I love trails like this,where you can get some distance
in and be kind of out there, butalso there's not a lot of
climbing. It's really nice, if
Craig Romano (14:13):
you like that. And rail trails, another wonderful
place for running or for walk isthe white horse trail. And the
white horse Trail is a railtrail that connects to the
Centennial Trail in Arlington,yeah, all the way to Darrington.
Unfortunately, the section,there is one section outside
Arlington that was damaged bythe landslides. That's not open,
but the but the majority of thetrail is and some of the best
(14:35):
parts of the trail are towardsDarington. As far as for our
scenery, you'll go along. Let meget to try this North Fork of
the stillwamish? Yep, North Forkof the stillwamish. You'll also
very, very moving. You'll gothrough the Oso landslide area,
the memorial there where, boy,I'm losing track of the time,
(14:55):
it's been 10 years,
Jennie Flaming (14:56):
hasn't it? Yeah, I think it's been maybe 11.
Craig Romano (14:59):
Yeah. I think that's right when I remember,
matter of fact, it's chilling,because this when I was working
for green trails, I was visitingmy retailers, and I was in
Darrington talking people. Idrove out the day after I drove
back from Darrington on thatspot, the mountain slid out. I
think, Oh, my God, that it wasjust, it was, it was a powder
(15:21):
keg just waiting to go. Yeah? Ithink 53 people lost their lives
in this thing that, yeah, entireside of the mountain came down,
blocked. It's just insane, yeah?
So when you see this now, ofcourse, plants are starting to
recolonize the area, but when itfirst happened, it looked like
Mount St Helens. It looked likeit were had blown. So the trail
has been, has been really builtnicely in there. It's paved in
(15:41):
the in that section. And you cansee the memorial in there. If
you continue after Darrington,you can go by the old Fortson
mill, which is used to be a townin there. It's, it's no longer
there. There's mill ponds,beautiful views of of the Finney
block in of white horse. Greatarea again, for, for a spring
walk, for a mountain bike, for arun, check that out. And then
(16:02):
outside of Darrington itself, upthe mountain loop high, which is
a couple miles on a pavedsection, is the Sauk River
Trail, which is anotherwonderful year round trail.
There's usually Eagles there inthe winter time in the fall,
there actually is a wheelchairaccessible section. A small loop
on there could be a littlerough, depending on how the
(16:23):
maintenance is. This anotherone, about seven miles you can
spend there. I've been in theremany, many times. It never gets
never gets tired. It's a greatone for kids. So these are all
great River Trails and close tothe city trails that you can do
right now.
Jennie Flaming (16:38):
Yeah, absolutely, pretty much all
year. Okay, I have one more totalk about before we wrap up.
But before we do that, are thereany others you want to mention?
Craig,
Craig Romano (16:50):
um, you know, I'm feeling, oh yes, of course,
river Meadow Park in Arlington,where the where the two forks of
the still aquamish meet, andthis is in my urban trails.
Every book wonderful, wonderfulpark is camping there still.
Guam ish, they do the salmonfest. I've gone to one of their
events. They're really, reallycool. This is a wonderful,
wonderful park. And many, manymiles of trails there too. So if
(17:15):
you don't, it's a lot of peopledon't, aren't aware of it. Yeah,
it's kind of off. You're off themain roads, but it's paved, good
roads to get there. Yes. Sothis, this is a good, a good
place to check out as well.
Yeah, okay, what's the one Imiss? Oh, what's the one you
did? I missed this one? Do youguys?
Jennie Flaming (17:30):
No, you'd never miss this one. So you know how
we said, you know, we have theplaces that we don't name
because they're too famous andannoying. Okay, this one I
actually love, even though it'svery popular. Oh, boy, do you
want to guess it, and
Unknown (17:51):
this is a low country Yes, oh, Wallace falls, yes,
of course, of course.
Jennie Flaming (17:59):
So, okay, here's the thing about Wallace. Walls I
know it is, and I know we said,you know, part of the purpose of
these episodes is to get beyondthese really famous and really
crowded hikes and and, you know,there's no planet where Wallace
(18:19):
follows is not that hike.
However, it's wonderful. I knowyou love it too. I think you
know, if it is a weekend, ohyeah, it's gonna, you're not
gonna be able to find parking.
And again, like we talked aboutin our last episode, and we
probably will talk about a lotthis year, and maybe every year,
(18:42):
is that if there's no parking,there's no parking, right? So I
know. So last week, I talkedabout if you do go to these
hikes going in the evening, andyou said or early in the
morning, but I'm gonna tell youthat at 6am these like popular
(19:03):
hikes, are already crowded, butat 4pm they are not, and at 6pm
they are definitely not. So Ihave found the evening hike is a
better crowd, void avoiding waythan early in the morning, you
know, unless we're talkingreally early in the morning,
like five, you know. But I thinksometimes we'll think, Oh, I'll
(19:27):
get there at seven and it won'tbe as crowded. No, it's bananas
at seven, seven. So anyway, Iwould recommend, first of all,
Wallace falls amazing year roundhike. Um, this last winter, it
was really damaged by the bombcyclone that we had in November,
but they have repaired thetrail. And, I mean, it's amazing
(19:47):
what Washington State Parks hasdone to get that trail back open
and safe so quickly. So I just,you know, the waterfalls there
are beautiful. It's a it's agreat. Hike for visitors. I
mean, yes, it's very busy, butif you're there like this time
of year, in the spring, it'sstill busy, but not as busy. Or
(20:09):
if you go in the evening or on aweekday in the summer or in
January, I don't know. There'salso many other hikes there. You
know, you can go like up to thelake. And that also a
Craig Romano (20:22):
lot less. And the other thing too, and I every
time I've done Wallace falls,and it's been quite a bit,
because I really do like, likethe hike, yeah, I usually go
there in the winter time. It's agreat time for two reasons, a
lot less people. Plus the fallsare that much more spectacular
because of all the water I haveconnected Wallace falls to
Wallace Lake. You could do along hike that way. You can go
(20:42):
beyond Wallace Lake to J Lake,and you're going to see nobody
up there at J Lake. You canactually camp at you need to get
a permit through state parks.
There's actually back countrycamping there, um, the Greg ball
trail that goes up there, theold Railroad Trail, yeah, goes
around because a lot of peoplejust go in and out the same, the
woody trail, the popular one,but there are you can. You can
actually even on a busy day hiketrails that aren't going to be
(21:04):
as busy. It is a state park.
Make sure you have a discoverpass. Make sure your dogs
unleash so but it is a fantasticit is definitely one of our best
parks, and there's no reason whyyou shouldn't when I moved to
the area back in the June of1989 I had already been I,
that's one of the first places Ihad to check out. And it was
(21:26):
busy back then too, but, but,but it's a great place. Yeah,
yeah.
Jennie Flaming (21:30):
I Yeah. Well, on that note, we are wrapping up
our three episode series aboutSnohomish County, and so this
has been really fun to do thisdeep dive into one location, and
I'm looking forward to doingmore of this in the future.
(21:51):
Absolutely. Yeah. So thank youSnohomish County tourism for
sponsoring the month of April,and we will see you all next on
Craig Romano (22:01):
the trails, yeah, yeah, you.
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking
(00:07):
podcast. I'm your host. JennieThwing Flaming,
Craig Romano (00:10):
and I'm your co host. Craig Romano, Craig
Jennie Flaming (00:12):
and I are happy to have you here. We provide
practical and timely, seasonalhiking advice for hikers, trail
runners and potential hikers andtrail runners of all skill and
ability levels that is helpful,accurate, fun and inclusive. Hi
everyone. This is the third andfinal episode in this three part
(00:35):
series about awesome hikes inSnohomish County. Thank you so
much to Snohomish County tourismfor sponsoring the Washington
State hiking podcast for themonth of April. All right,
Craig, well, this is the last ofour three part series about
awesome Snohomish County hikes,and thanks again to our sponsor,
(00:58):
Snohomish County tourism forsponsoring us for the month of
April, that is so wonderful. Andjust want to mention again that
they also have a wonderfulpodcast called Snohomish County
place makers that Craig and Iwere recently guests on, and
they came on to our show acouple weeks ago. So this has
(01:20):
been a really fun collaboration.
So we
Craig Romano (01:23):
really want to emphasize, too, the
accessibility of the hikes inSnohomish County, especially if
you live in the Seattle area.
Yeah, really close. And also,you know when you're coming back
for your opera, opera hike, youknow, your post hike, lots of
great places definitely supporta local business. Yes, you know,
getting espresso, brewpubdinner, all kinds of options you
can find on their website. Soyeah, definitely.
Jennie Flaming (01:48):
Two weeks ago, in our episode, we talked about
some of those, some of thosefavorites as well. So cool. So
Craig today, to kind of wrapthis up, we're talking about
lowland hikes. So last week, wetalked about mountains. Two
weeks ago, we talked withRichard and Nick about some of
their favorites, and some foodand drink and lodging places and
(02:11):
some urban hikes. So today we'rereally talking about kind of
rivers, forests, more low landhikes. And so I'd love to know
what are some of your favorites?
Craig Romano (02:23):
Yeah, let's, let's emphasize too. Jennie, this is a
perfect segue on this, ourepisode about the high country.
You can't get to a lot of thoseplaces right now. It's still
winter up there. So this, youknow, put, make your notes where
you want, where you want to hikea couple months from now. This
is where you what we're going totalk about today is where you
can, you can go out today, rightnow, right after you finish, if
(02:45):
you're driving to the trailheadright now. So, you know, the
western part of the county isdefinitely more urbanized, so
that's where you're going tohave some great urban, urban
trails, close to town, a lot ofplaces that it's perfect for
going for a walk and thenstopping in at your favorite
brew pub or or cafe. So in, youknow, right, right in, in
Everett. I know, I know Nick hadtalked about some of his
(03:06):
favorite hikes, the the milltown, which is right in the
heart of the city, a greatplace, but right outside. I
mean, in the city limits, stillin the city, it's going to feel
very, very different, the langusriverfront and the Spencer
Island, which is in the in theSnohomish River Delta, and
that's what this is kind of acool place. I mean, you got the
highway there, so you get thehighway noise, so you can block
(03:27):
that out. You can hike in thisarea, in the Delta, and when
it's foggy, you're going to feellike you're in the South. You're
going to feel like you're downin Louisiana. Except, I mean,
it's not no magnolia trees oralligators, but it has that,
that that buy you feeling whensun comes out and it does come
out in every it does. You'regoing to have that those
(03:48):
bottlenecks. And you can seeMount Rainier across the way,
and realize, sorry, I'm notLouisiana. In mount Pilchuck,
you'll see across the way this,and it's great for burning. It's
actually, it's one of the bestburning hot spots in the Puget
Sound area, the the langusriverfront part is paved, so
that's a paved trail. You can dothat. And then you, you cross
onto the island on an oldJackknife bridge that was
(04:10):
brought in from a differentarea. So that's been, it's a
historic bridge. And then youcan hike. You can hike on, on,
on these, on the Delta, in thedelta. So, so really cool place.
Jennie Flaming (04:22):
So this is just to sort of review for everyone,
because I bet most people arenot familiar with this at all.
This is in the city of Everett,along, sort of at the delta of
the Snohomish river. So theSnohomish river flows down from
the mountains and out throughSnohomish Surprise, surprise,
(04:44):
and around the city of Everettand then out there. So just
wanted to sort of center thatfor folks where we're actually
talking about,
Craig Romano (04:54):
you know, and why we're talking about so here's a
little factoid you may or maynot know, the Snohomish river
itself is actually pretty sure.
Pretty short. It's formed by thesky com ish, you know, and the
Snoqualmie. And so where thoserivers with the confluence, then
you've got the Snohomish and soperfect segue. Right below that,
that area, you've got a coupleof great places to hike. First
of all, I got Lord Hill, whichis, which is Snohomish County's
(05:16):
largest county park. I thinkit's about 415, 100 acres, miles
and miles of trails, about 20miles of real good trails. And
then there's, there's moreprimitive trails. I love it for
running a lot of the old roadsin there. It's great for taking
kids. There's some there's somesmall ponds, and there's some
wetlands. There are actuallysome few areas too, even though
it's mostly forested. But thereare a few, few areas where you
(05:38):
get views out across theconfluence of the river and out
towards Mount Rainier. This is agreat place. It's right between
the town of Snohomish andMonroe. Wonderful, wonderful
park. If you've never beenthere, you can, you can actually
mountain bike there. You canhorseback ride there to Great
Park. But along the river on theother side, this is always a
mouthful. There's the the mountairman, the Bob airman, the
(06:02):
full. It's by the Bob airmanwetland area. I gotta look at
the full. The full thing is theconfluence of Thomas Eddie. It's
a long name. It's called, we'llcall it the Bob airman Park, uh,
who was Bob airman? He was, hewas a duck hunter, um, and this
was an area on the river. That
Jennie Flaming (06:22):
was an Army still talking about the
Snohomish River.
Craig Romano (06:25):
We're right on.
We're on the snow. We'reliterally on the Snohomish
river. So this, this is an andLord Hill is on, is on the north
side of the river. In the airmanPark is on the south side of the
river. And this was a quarry atone point, and it has these
beautiful oxbow lakes. They'rethe wintertime swans winter down
here. But this is baffles methat I believe in the 1970s
(06:46):
somebody wants to put a housingdevelopment in here. First of
all, it's just insane, becauseit's on a flood plain. It's
absolutely ridiculous. Butmister airman led the the cost
to protect this area becauseit's incredible wildlife
habitat. So this is a place youcould check out a totally
different mood of the river.
(07:06):
Hiking here. Great birdwatching. So check this place
out too. This is you access thisfrom Snohomish on the south side
of the river. So that's a greatplace too. Again, you know,
going upriver a little more nowwe're actually going to be on
the sky COVID River, becausewe're north of Monroe, one of my
favorite places for local easierclose close to the city. Place
(07:30):
are the Osprey trails in Sultanit's a whole network of trails
here. And there's bridges thatgo over. And this is an area
that was mitigated when, whenthe dam at Spada Lake, which is
Everett's water watershed. NowWater Drinking water was being
reauthorized and all that theythey enhanced some some wildlife
habitat down below for salmon.
So it's a great place to see aspawning salmon. Lots of
(07:53):
channels. You can walk on thesebridges. Kids will absolutely
love it. So that's a really coolplace. Wow.
Jennie Flaming (08:00):
Yeah, yeah. Love it. Those are wonderful
suggestions. One of the onesthat comes to mind for me, which
I'm not going to talk about alot right now, teaser is because
Marissa, who's going to be ourguest next week, when we're
talking about hiking with kids.
She talks about this hike alittle more, but meadowdale
(08:23):
Beach Park, which is kind ofthere in kind of between Edmonds
and Mukilteo, that's a great,great trail, but we'll talk more
about that
Craig Romano (08:34):
next week. That's a great one. And, and I don't
Yeah, other areas for kids andlocal in that region too. You
know, right in busy Lynwood, ifyou've never taken the time, is
scriber lake in that area, andit's a little park, but there's
actually with scriber Brook,there's a paved trail so you can
walk farther, but it's got afloating bridge. It's a floating
(08:55):
bridge, and that's a greatplace. I remember when I was
working in the research in myurban trails, every book, taking
my son there, really like thatplace. Yeah. And then right in
Edmonds too, there's not majorhikes along the water. It's a
wonderful waterfront, but it's,you know, you have the marsh
there, and you can walk. You canwalk kind of a paid path around
the marsh. That's really nice.
And then Yost Park. Yost Park isa really nice place, yeah, to
(09:15):
you can walk a couple miles inthere too. And a lot of people
outside of Edmonds aren't awareof it because it's kind of
tucked in there a little Yes,that's a nice place.
Jennie Flaming (09:28):
People who know Yoast Park would know it for its
outdoor swimming pool. Oh yeah,but there are really cool trails
and forestry as well. You
Craig Romano (09:37):
can do a couple miles in there easily as well.
So again, this is right in theurban areas. Again, right on the
on the edge of of of the urbanpact. So this is going more
towards outside of Bothell,towards Monroe, is para is
paradise, Paradise ValleyParadise Valley Park. Yup,
(09:58):
that's another, really. Really,it's a large park. It's, it's
well over 1000 acres. Halfwayhasn't been developed yet, but
there's, I think there's wellover 10 miles of trails there.
It's pretty gentle terrain. Soit's, again, it's great for
kids. It's great for running.
This is near Maltby, over inthat area. This, this is another
really nice place. If you justgot a couple hours, you need to
(10:19):
get out, want to do some walk,you can, you could easily spend,
you know, half a day or morethere. Well, it's trails. So
these are all good ones you cando right now. Now you want to go
a little bit farther into, intothe back country, along rivers.
Okay, I'm going to, I'm going tosend you to Granite Falls and
over, over in this area is thelime kiln trail, yes, which is a
(10:41):
wonderful, wonderful trail. Ifyou're history, it's you're
going to hike down on theoriginal railroad that connected
Everett to the ghost town MonteCristo that I talked about
later. And this, this, thisrailroads, amazing, built on in
this canyon along, you know,this river valley. Brutal, hard
work, most of it, you know, hardimmigrant labor, putting this
(11:03):
together. And then you'll get toa restored lime kiln. One of
the, one of the these should bethese lime kilns all over the
place out here, and there's ahandful that are still left.
It's a great one out in the SanJuan Islands. This is one of the
great ones here too. You cancheck this out. And
unfortunately, I've been hikingthis area for about 25 years. A
lot of the artifacts in the airhave disappeared. People have
taken stuff. Please don't dothat. This is part of part of
(11:24):
our heritage. There used to beall kinds of saw blades and
bricks, you know, in bed, but alot of that stuff has
disappeared. Imagine that. It'sreally sad. This is part of our
heritage, and it's really coolto see this stuff out here. So
this is about a seven mile hikeyou can do to go down there. You
kind of start up through someold cut, old forest, everything
(11:45):
you drop down into the canyon.
There's old growth, spectacularhike that's usually accessible
year round. Yep.
Jennie Flaming (11:57):
Our sponsor for the month of April is Snohomish
County Tourism woven into thefabric and landscape of
Snohomish County, Washington are1400 plus square miles of forest
land. This means plenty of spaceto hike or ride a bike or a
horse on a nationally awardwinning trail or camp in a
(12:18):
forested campground or asweeping meadow. You might even
find yourself spending the nightwith your closest friends in a
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are you won't be short onopportunities to capture great
photos and even better memories,speaking of which, the national
(12:40):
parks, forests and public landsin and around Snohomish County
are some of the most beautifulplaces to explore, and they need
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Visit Seattle North country.comyou can also follow Seattle
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on their social accounts. Thankyou. Visit Snohomish County now
back to the show.
Craig Romano (13:24):
Yeah, Jennie, you have some. I have more. So if
you you uncrimed. Well,
Jennie Flaming (13:27):
um, lime kiln was actually one of the biggest
ones that I wanted to talkabout, and you already did. So I
think the only thing I would addto what you said about lime
kiln, Craig, is that it's notsuper steep, right? So, you
know, because it's on a railroadbed, so that makes sense, um,
but it's a place where you cango quite a distance, um, without
(13:51):
too much climbing. Andpersonally, I love that for a
rainy day, because doing a lotof uphill when I'm wearing a
rain jacket. I don't like that.
So I love trails like this,where you can get some distance
in and be kind of out there, butalso there's not a lot of
climbing. It's really nice, if
Craig Romano (14:13):
you like that. And rail trails, another wonderful
place for running or for walk isthe white horse trail. And the
white horse Trail is a railtrail that connects to the
Centennial Trail in Arlington,yeah, all the way to Darrington.
Unfortunately, the section,there is one section outside
Arlington that was damaged bythe landslides. That's not open,
but the but the majority of thetrail is and some of the best
(14:35):
parts of the trail are towardsDarington. As far as for our
scenery, you'll go along. Let meget to try this North Fork of
the stillwamish? Yep, North Forkof the stillwamish. You'll also
very, very moving. You'll gothrough the Oso landslide area,
the memorial there where, boy,I'm losing track of the time,
(14:55):
it's been 10 years,
Jennie Flaming (14:56):
hasn't it? Yeah, I think it's been maybe 11.
Craig Romano (14:59):
Yeah. I think that's right when I remember,
matter of fact, it's chilling,because this when I was working
for green trails, I was visitingmy retailers, and I was in
Darrington talking people. Idrove out the day after I drove
back from Darrington on thatspot, the mountain slid out. I
think, Oh, my God, that it wasjust, it was, it was a powder
(15:21):
keg just waiting to go. Yeah? Ithink 53 people lost their lives
in this thing that, yeah, entireside of the mountain came down,
blocked. It's just insane, yeah?
So when you see this now, ofcourse, plants are starting to
recolonize the area, but when itfirst happened, it looked like
Mount St Helens. It looked likeit were had blown. So the trail
has been, has been really builtnicely in there. It's paved in
(15:41):
the in that section. And you cansee the memorial in there. If
you continue after Darrington,you can go by the old Fortson
mill, which is used to be a townin there. It's, it's no longer
there. There's mill ponds,beautiful views of of the Finney
block in of white horse. Greatarea again, for, for a spring
walk, for a mountain bike, for arun, check that out. And then
(16:02):
outside of Darrington itself, upthe mountain loop high, which is
a couple miles on a pavedsection, is the Sauk River
Trail, which is anotherwonderful year round trail.
There's usually Eagles there inthe winter time in the fall,
there actually is a wheelchairaccessible section. A small loop
on there could be a littlerough, depending on how the
(16:23):
maintenance is. This anotherone, about seven miles you can
spend there. I've been in theremany, many times. It never gets
never gets tired. It's a greatone for kids. So these are all
great River Trails and close tothe city trails that you can do
right now.
Jennie Flaming (16:38):
Yeah, absolutely, pretty much all
year. Okay, I have one more totalk about before we wrap up.
But before we do that, are thereany others you want to mention?
Craig,
Craig Romano (16:50):
um, you know, I'm feeling, oh yes, of course,
river Meadow Park in Arlington,where the where the two forks of
the still aquamish meet, andthis is in my urban trails.
Every book wonderful, wonderfulpark is camping there still.
Guam ish, they do the salmonfest. I've gone to one of their
events. They're really, reallycool. This is a wonderful,
wonderful park. And many, manymiles of trails there too. So if
(17:15):
you don't, it's a lot of peopledon't, aren't aware of it. Yeah,
it's kind of off. You're off themain roads, but it's paved, good
roads to get there. Yes. Sothis, this is a good, a good
place to check out as well.
Yeah, okay, what's the one Imiss? Oh, what's the one you
did? I missed this one? Do youguys?
Jennie Flaming (17:30):
No, you'd never miss this one. So you know how
we said, you know, we have theplaces that we don't name
because they're too famous andannoying. Okay, this one I
actually love, even though it'svery popular. Oh, boy, do you
want to guess it, and
Unknown (17:51):
this is a low country Yes, oh, Wallace falls, yes,
of course, of course.
Jennie Flaming (17:59):
So, okay, here's the thing about Wallace. Walls I
know it is, and I know we said,you know, part of the purpose of
these episodes is to get beyondthese really famous and really
crowded hikes and and, you know,there's no planet where Wallace
(18:19):
follows is not that hike.
However, it's wonderful. I knowyou love it too. I think you
know, if it is a weekend, ohyeah, it's gonna, you're not
gonna be able to find parking.
And again, like we talked aboutin our last episode, and we
probably will talk about a lotthis year, and maybe every year,
(18:42):
is that if there's no parking,there's no parking, right? So I
know. So last week, I talkedabout if you do go to these
hikes going in the evening, andyou said or early in the
morning, but I'm gonna tell youthat at 6am these like popular
(19:03):
hikes, are already crowded, butat 4pm they are not, and at 6pm
they are definitely not. So Ihave found the evening hike is a
better crowd, void avoiding waythan early in the morning, you
know, unless we're talkingreally early in the morning,
like five, you know. But I thinksometimes we'll think, Oh, I'll
(19:27):
get there at seven and it won'tbe as crowded. No, it's bananas
at seven, seven. So anyway, Iwould recommend, first of all,
Wallace falls amazing year roundhike. Um, this last winter, it
was really damaged by the bombcyclone that we had in November,
but they have repaired thetrail. And, I mean, it's amazing
(19:47):
what Washington State Parks hasdone to get that trail back open
and safe so quickly. So I just,you know, the waterfalls there
are beautiful. It's a it's agreat. Hike for visitors. I
mean, yes, it's very busy, butif you're there like this time
of year, in the spring, it'sstill busy, but not as busy. Or
(20:09):
if you go in the evening or on aweekday in the summer or in
January, I don't know. There'salso many other hikes there. You
know, you can go like up to thelake. And that also a
Craig Romano (20:22):
lot less. And the other thing too, and I every
time I've done Wallace falls,and it's been quite a bit,
because I really do like, likethe hike, yeah, I usually go
there in the winter time. It's agreat time for two reasons, a
lot less people. Plus the fallsare that much more spectacular
because of all the water I haveconnected Wallace falls to
Wallace Lake. You could do along hike that way. You can go
(20:42):
beyond Wallace Lake to J Lake,and you're going to see nobody
up there at J Lake. You canactually camp at you need to get
a permit through state parks.
There's actually back countrycamping there, um, the Greg ball
trail that goes up there, theold Railroad Trail, yeah, goes
around because a lot of peoplejust go in and out the same, the
woody trail, the popular one,but there are you can. You can
actually even on a busy day hiketrails that aren't going to be
(21:04):
as busy. It is a state park.
Make sure you have a discoverpass. Make sure your dogs
unleash so but it is a fantasticit is definitely one of our best
parks, and there's no reason whyyou shouldn't when I moved to
the area back in the June of1989 I had already been I,
that's one of the first places Ihad to check out. And it was
(21:26):
busy back then too, but, but,but it's a great place. Yeah,
yeah.
Jennie Flaming (21:30):
I Yeah. Well, on that note, we are wrapping up
our three episode series aboutSnohomish County, and so this
has been really fun to do thisdeep dive into one location, and
I'm looking forward to doingmore of this in the future.
(21:51):
Absolutely. Yeah. So thank youSnohomish County tourism for
sponsoring the month of April,and we will see you all next on
Craig Romano (22:01):
the trails, yeah, yeah, you.
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