The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
The Best Snow Free Winter Hikes in Washington State
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Jennie and Craig talk about their favorite hikes in Washington State for snow free winter hiking, from lower altitude big views for those rare sunny days, to islands, forests, valley hikes and waterfalls.
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Jennie’s favorite winter hikes
Welcome to The Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co host, Craig Romano, Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. Well, everyone today, we are doing our winter hiking guide for Washington and Craig. This is pretty cool, because now we've got, you know, we've gone through almost a whole year we've covered best spring hikes, best summer hikes, best fall hikes, and now winter,
Craig Romano:because we hike all year round. I No such thing as hiking season
Jennie Flaming:perpetual, not for Craig and I cool. Okay, well, let's talk a little bit to start off, similar to how we have with the other seasons. What are some of the benefits? What are some of the things that are kind of unique to winter hiking in Washington? Yeah,
Craig Romano:so this is assuming you're not going into snow country. You know, one that one of the neat things about being this far north latitude, because of the weather here, we have large areas of the state that pretty much it's snow free. Now you can't, you know, you go across the country, and you know, the Appalachians in Georgia are going to be covered in snow, and we're so much farther north, but at our latitude, so we have that great advantage of the microclimate. So that's nice. We can actually hike year round here without having to worry about snow. And we'll talk about snowshoeing another time. But so what are the advantages? Well, we can hike year round. That's one of the big advantages. Yep. The other thing too is, you know, our trails are popular, more popular than ever. In general, almost always winter, it dies down a lot. A lot of, you know, there's a lot of trails that can be downright crowded during the summer and fall and spring that are very, very quiet in the wintertime. So I like that. What else do I like about winter too? Well, you don't like to heat. You don't have to worry about that. You're not gonna be overheating. Don't have to worry about ticks. You know, in areas like that, you don't have to worry about bugs. You don't have to worry about poison oak. So a lot of, a lot of those nuisances that we, you know, we tend to be concerned about winter time. We don't. We don't have to be concerned about them. The other thing too is the advantage. Again, you know, just it could be a good time for Wildlife Society, because lots of times in the summertime, either the animals are up in higher country or they're just staying away because things are so busy. So that's the nice thing about it. And again, we live in a very wet area. So, you know, waterfalls in the summertime, lots of times are just trickles. Winter time is a great place, yeah, to go and again, trails that you might be hiking. I just want in particular I know, near fragrance lake and the chocolate nuts that in the summertime there's nothing there. In the wintertime, he's got this beautiful waterfall. It's coming down. So you're gonna, you're gonna see, I mean, it's they become, in essence, different hikes, yeah, but definitely lower crowds and no bugs, I would say are two the biggest pluses to hiking. Yeah.
Jennie Flaming:I completely agree with those. I also, you know, we talked about this in our Solstice episode last week, but I feel like the beauty of winter, you know, it's different. There's no wildflowers. They're you know, but we live in a place that's green all year, and when we have those clear, sunny winter days, I mean, they're really spectacular, with all that snow on the mountains and clean air and all that kind of thing. I also, we also talked about this last week, but I really love the late sunrises and early sunsets. Not, not always, for every day, but like for a hike, it's kind of great. Or if you just want to watch a sunrise or a sunset, it's just that's such a wonderful hour.
Craig Romano:Well, I do, I do enjoy the lighting. I wish our sunrises and sunsets were much later and longer, but I do love the lighting this time of year, and even if it's only for 2030 minutes, we get that at three o'clock, but it's absolutely spectacular. So if you're again, if you're a photographer, this time of year is wonderful with some of the lighting and the shadows and everything. Yeah.
Jennie Flaming:And one other thing I want to mention too is that back in November, we had an episode about what we bring in our packs for fall and winter that's different from summer. So if this idea of winter hiking is kind of a new idea for you, I'd really encourage you to go back and and listen to that episode, along with our holiday hikes one and our Solstice one, because those were also covered some awesome winter hikes that are a little bit different from what we're going to talk about today. One other thing I wanted to mention, you know, we are going to have a few episodes here and there about snow, but one of the things that I have learned is. That you know from having my website is that most people who are looking for winter hiking are actually looking for snow free options, and so that's one reason why we decided to just stick with now we'll come to some downsides in a minute, which can be surprise snow, but in general, we're talking about places that are mostly snow free in winter in this episode,
Craig Romano:yeah, and we have so many choices here to, matter of fact, my urban trail book series, and I've written eight, eight books in the series. It's a lot of hikes. I mean, you're talking about, in essence, almost all those are still free. And it's not just urban, like paved in the city, but I'm talking about the periphery, getting out into the into the into the foothills and everything. For the most part, those are, those are snow free. We have a lot of options here. Yeah,
Jennie Flaming:we absolutely do. It's one very cool thing, like you mentioned. Okay, so what are some of the downsides, Craig, that we have to be careful about with winter hiking. Obviously,
Craig Romano:that shortness of light, you know, so you don't be caught off guard. It's generally it's pretty safe to throw, throw, throw a headlamp in your in your in your back, even if you're not planning on it, you never know what's going to happen. We've all had situations where we've been out there longer. Having that light. It's not heavy, it's not a nuisance. Boy, if you need it, because your cell phone is going to burn out. So you don't, you don't want to use your rely on your phone, have that and definitely make sure, speaking of phones and in camera, that everything's fully charged. Because cold, cold weather saps batteries a lot quicker too. Yes, it does. So having a power pack is always a good idea to with you. Again, we've talked about this earlier. You know weather, winter weather is tough, fall weather is tough, flooding and trees down. Yeah. So I tend to, you know, I'm not going to go down some of these really crazy remote roads, not knowing what I'm going to get myself into. So you want to stick to good roads, good, well maintained roads to get these areas. And I know we talked about this earlier too, in my in my vehicle, this time of year, I'm going to, there's a saw, there's rope, there's blankets that kind of so if you do, you know, you do come into a situation where you're stuck or something like that, you want to be somewhat prepared to deal with it. Yeah, so that's a downside again, yeah, the wetness, it could, it could rain or snow. You want to make sure the layers, you don't want to be caught off guard. This is not a time of year where you just want to go on a whim. I mean, you really want to make sure, yeah, you know, even, even your local hikes. I mean, it does not take long to get hypothermia or be out there in the dark, and then when the rain, you can get into trouble. So so definitely pay a little more attention to what's going into your pack. And it's better to throw that extra layer in there and not need it then then be shivering and wet and looking for it. So definitely,
Jennie Flaming:and I would maybe add to that, those are all really excellent points. I think one other one is just that there can be surprise snow in places where you may not expect it, or ice, right? So I'm thinking about like some of the trails that you have in your urban trails East Side book that are in the foothills in Issaquah. You know, I've definitely encountered ice there when it was kind of a surprise, and I carry micro spikes with me in the winter, and that's just like chains for your shoes. But you know, you can avoid that by just saying, Oh, I'm gonna turn around if I encounter ice. But just that is something that even if you're using like WTA is trip reports, which is a super valuable tool, you know, maybe it snowed there overnight, or it froze there and it hadn't before. And so things can change quite fast in winter
Craig Romano:when you try to avoid snow too. I mean, there's no guarantees there, but there's things you can you can do to minimize that. And so she's going south slope. South slope trails are always going to be a better choice than North Slope. The sun, Sun's actually hitting them in the winter time right? The north slope can go on for, you know, a couple months without without the sun hitting it. So that's you have a better chance of hitting snow on those north slopes. So that's one thing look you want to look at with this is kind of interesting, too. Even your tree cover, what can be, you know, if you've got old growth forest in that that's gonna filter the snow, it's not gonna be as much down an area where you're just going through alders there all the leaves, you're gonna have your snow. So you can, so if you are concerned about snow on a lot of these things, again, there's no guarantee you can, you can filter some of this out just by Yeah, I know what kind of terrain you're going you're going to definitely have so many micro climates here too. So you know, your rain shot areas are going to be better choices for dryer places in the convergence zone,
Jennie Flaming:yes, yeah, yep. And you know, you can always just go on a beach hike where there is very rarely snow, and if it is, it's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. And there's going to be snow everywhere, including in your driveway, so it's going to be an adventure going anywhere. Okay, I did
Craig Romano:get a cross country ski on the coast a couple times. It's very, very rare when you get enough snow, because it doesn't last long on the beach. It's just some way. But, yeah, I. Have to do this on both coasts. I get to, you know, do, because same thing on the East Coast, same thing along the coast. You very rarely get the snow right along the coast, yeah, but you do, you take advantage of it, because it's, you know, the coastlines are flat and you can go out there. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:I cross country skied one time at Alki Beach a couple years ago. It was a short ski, but it was kind of fun. And you know how to cross country ski, you kind of need there to be a little bit of a base, so you kind of need two snowfalls to make that work, and for it to be quite cold. But it was, and I have skied at Seward Park a few times, a handful of times, so I live, have lived kind of near there for like, 15
Craig Romano:years. It just reminded you time about that again, one of the advantages. So when I was working on my urban trail Seattle book, and, you know, I come back, I lived in the city for years. I used to run a Green Lake, and just kind of, you know, it's a mob scene. And I remember going back because it's like, oh, I don't want to deal with the crowds. And it was a few years back when we had brutally cold weather here, we got on the teens, and let me tell you how cool that was. Where I went to Alki, okay, in less than 15 there's nobody there. So you get to experience a place with nobody. But one of the coolest things, I was at Green Lake, again, nobody there. The lake's frozen. You're one of those few times a good day, and I'm walking around and I'm noticing things for the first time, because there's usually so many people like, wow, I never knew there were cypress trees planted here. All these things. I run this place in 1000s of miles. I've put in there running, and now I'm noticing things for the first time. Yeah, without the crowds, without the distractions, yeah, because it's a brutally cold day, but it was, it was dry, it was sunny, just nobody's out there. It was me and a few other transplant Minnesotans and New England New Englanders. We, you know, we can handle this weather just fine, but it just it creates a whole new world. And it was really, really cool. Yeah. So, yeah, look at it as an advantage. And this could be the only time you can go around Green Lake without seeing anybody,
Jennie Flaming:yes. So, yes, absolutely. Well, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, we'll talk about some of our favorite winter hikes in Washington State. Hi everyone, Jennie, here, I hope you're enjoying this episode so far, since it is the holiday season, if you're listening to these episodes in real time, I wanted to let you know that this is a great time to support the podcast. If you're looking for gifts for folks or things for inspiration for yourself in the new year, check out Craig's books. They are all linked in the show notes, all of his amazing hiking guides to Washington. And I also have my weekly newsletter with weekly hiking, hiking inspiration, real time, current weather, current conditions, all of that, as well as my Seattle seasonal hiking Guide, which is digital, and my hike guide planner. So check all of those out. Those are all in the show notes, along with our tip jar, and this is a great time to support the podcast as we head in to 2025 so thanks for listening, and happy holidays, and we're back. So in this episode, we're talking all about winter hiking in Washington. We are in this episode talking about snow free hikes in winter. And so Craig, when I think of winter snow free winter Washington hikes, I am mostly thinking about beaches and forests, and then a few of those view hikes that are often, or at least sometimes, snow free during the winter. How about you, what? Oh, and waterfalls. To
Craig Romano:you, the valleys, to the valley. So the thing is, you can get into the mountains, into the valleys. And what's cool? The Olympics, yeah, you know, in particular, I mean, the high country is getting battered. It's snowy, but those valleys are staying snow free, yeah. And the rainforest. Matter of fact, yeah, if you go over there, most people go to the whole rainforest when it's dry. In the summertime, yeah, it's way better. In the winter, it's way better. Plus, there's no crowds in the wintertime, yes, and the elk are all down there too. Yeah. So really cool. So if you can get to the whole rainforest in the wintertime, you will really experience the rainforest. Quinn, all, I love Quinn, all, in the wintertime, it's quiet, the big tree. I mean, could stay at the lodge, or just, you know, even an hour away at Ocean shores or something to come up. It's wonderful in the wintertime, absolutely. And again, all the small waterfalls are starting. So the Dhaka bush on the Hood Canal, side staircase, again, these are places that can be really, really popular in the summertime. In the wintertime, it's a whole different ballgame. And again, you've got good roads to get in there, not very far from main centers, you know, getting into staircase, you know, it's an hour from Olympia. Really nice hikes you can do in the wintertime, where I live in the skyjuv Valley. Same thing, you know, highway 20 shuts down the wintertime. It's pretty quiet, but you can still get. Up there quite a ways. I love Rockport State Park. In the wintertime, it's quiet. I was just up there in November with my son, and we were the only ones on the trail. Yeah. So it's great the old growth Newhalem. So in Newhalem, you have to company town with with the dams and everything in the park. It can be really, really busy. In the summertime, we're talking about North Cascades, West cascades, a whole little network of trails. Winter time, summer time, it's crazy. It's just people. The winter time, the town is dead. There's nobody, there's nobody driving through. You can explore this whole thing by yourself. Go up, you know, by the powerhouse and the old growth and everything,
Jennie Flaming:and there's that really cool waterfall back there, really cool ladder. Winter time is
Craig Romano:when you go there. So I love that mountain loop highway. Same thing, really busy you got, you got from the Darrington side, you can get into the old sock Trail, which is a great winter trail to get into. And you're on the paved side of mountain, you know, it's paved to get in there. So it's, you know, it's good road to get in there, yep, Boulder Creek wilderness.
Jennie Flaming:When you said that, I was thinking, Oh, Boulder Creek is an excellent winter
Craig Romano:hike, and the waterfalls are spectacular, yeah. So for me, it's think valleys, yeah. I think those valleys that get in there and you can still get mountain scenery, you know, and sunny, you can still see snow pack, snow cap peaks around you and everything. So you kind of get a little bit of a wilderness effect boulder. Boulder Creek is in a wilderness area in the boulder, Boulder Creek wilderness. So you can still get a little that back country feel, even though you're not getting in too far.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Those are all really amazing winter options. I think you know, we are gonna do an episode about winter water falls. So we have that coming. But, you know, we talked about ladder Creek, which is their North Cascades. We talked about Twin Falls in the in the holiday episode. So we'll do more of that. But you do have to kind of watch, and again, we'll talk about it in the winter water falls episode. But you do, some of them have a lot of snow, you know, on the trail, so you do have to watch for that. But lots of them don't. You know, I'm also thinking about a few of the cool view hikes that at least can be snow free in winter. So if it's a clear day and you want to get a cool view, sometimes, you know, rattlesnake ledge sometimes has snow, but not always. Same for Cedar Butte, which is the same spot, you know, you've talked about oyster dome before, which does sometimes have snow, but not often. Um, yeah. So in Green Mountain, we talked about, um, that's in your Kitsap book. So in a good one too, the gorge. No Green Mountain. Green Mountains in Manchester. Yeah. Okay. So the Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular place. So if you live in Portland, Vancouver area, or if you're traveling down, the great thing about you can you can get into stay in a hotel in Vancouver, and within 2030, miles, you've got all this hiking. Yeah. So again, think about again the gorge. You know, it's one of those places things can stay snow free for a while. Yep, doing something like dog mountain in February. Yeah. And here's the other thing, because in summertime, it's just it's mopsing. People go to dog for the flowers. But here's the crazy thing, the views are views are spectacular. And the first flowers start in February there too. So you start getting a few and you again, you're not going to encounter any rattlesnakes in February, right? Hamilton is another one. It is a great hike where it's wonderful winter hike. It's generally snow free. There's waterfalls in there. Great views. Again, these are hikes are very, very popular in the summertime. In the winter is a great time to be doing, to be checking these out outside of Vancouver in the
Craig Romano:Yocalt Burn state forest, the Tarbell trail. It's 24 miles long. I've trail run that thing in the wintertime. It stays snow free. You're not going up into silver star, which hidden falls. You know, it's a great, great trail network to get in there. And, yeah, winter time is the best time. In the end, this is just, you know, 20 miles from Vancouver. Yeah, good roads to get into, into these areas, and I'm not going to be crowded. So there's so many options. Bells Mountain, which is also that area, you get these great views of Mount St Helens, you know, molten falls. There's, there's, there the falls are roaring a little bit better, yeah, in the summertime. So think valleys, think valleys,
Jennie Flaming:yes, absolutely, I totally agree with that. And you know, back in our holiday episode, we talked a little bit about Eastern Washington too, which is, which is tough in winter, because it can be snowy, it can be extremely cold. It isn't always right. So it can be icy. But you know, all of the River Trails in eastern Washington are amazing year round. I mean, like the river trail in through the arboretum and Yakima, or the one in wind. Patchy, the Apple Valley Trail, Tri Cities, you know, Spokane, you know, those are all great options, kind of no matter what's happening with the weather, unless there's an ice storm or something, yeah,
Craig Romano:is one of those places too. Yeah, several times in February, when the weather's spring, like in a lot of other areas, and you do have a good urban trail system in Yakima, again, same thing. You can stay right in town and go to great restaurants and, yeah, you know, brew pubs and everything right there, and miles and miles to run or hike, yeah. So that's great Tri Cities and other places too. So you never know. Sometimes it can be brutally cold wind, but it is definitely mild precipitation is a lot less in those areas. Yeah. So if you find yourself in those areas, take advantage. Yeah, yeah. What? Actually, same thing when actually, she's got a great urban trail system, yeah.
Jennie Flaming:One other thing I'd mention about Eastern Washington related to weather. If you don't live there and you visit there, and you're living in Seattle, Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, somewhere that you're thinking of going over there for sun. So just be aware that sometimes in the middle of winter there's actually quite a bit of fog over there. The inversions over there too. And so just that's kind of a November through February thing. And it's not like, it's foggy all the time, but like, you definitely don't want to assume it's going to be sunny. You know, if it's like April, you can almost make that assumption. And
Craig Romano:that fog, that's damp, it's cold. Yeah, it's really
Jennie Flaming:cold. You can also get up above it in certain places, so, yeah, just be aware that that is a factor over there in the middle of winter. Okay, any other favorite winter hikes that you want to call out Craig we haven't talked about yet. We're going
Craig Romano:to talk about Joshua Tree later. Yes, one of my favorite. Let's
Jennie Flaming:save that for when we talk about California, which we are going to do an episode about that in January.
Craig Romano:I think, you know, again, I I talk about the urban trails a lot, and I was thinking, again, gorged. I have a lot of favorite area. I spent a lot of time in Vancouver. It's where my wife's from, that area. But one of my favorite places in the winter time for running, walking, you've got a nice little trail system by by Vancouver Lake, Frenchman's bar, yeah. And what's cool about that area connects. You're right along the Columbia River. You're in the bottomland area. First of all, sun. You can see Mount Hood, Mount St Helens, yep. But the other thing the birds and yeah, cranes, yeah. So, you know, it's a great they're only going to be there during the winter time, so hundreds of sand hill cranes. Yeah, that is cool. That's worth it, right there. Check that out. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:that's a really good point. Is how fantastic winter is for birds here, yep,
Craig Romano:simply up in Ridgefield, up the National Wildlife Refuge there, you know? So think if you're, if you're a birder, think about these species that are coming down here for the winter time. So a lot of those coastal areas, yeah, lots of opportunities there. And then out in Central Washington, in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Othello, in those areas, later on, in the winter, late winter, you start getting the Sandhill Crane migration getting in there. So again, you you might not be going out there for the spectacular landscapes, though there's some cool, coolies and canes in there too, yeah. But think about the wildlife, your wildlife opportunities out there. You
Jennie Flaming:know, talking about birds makes me think of one other one that I almost forgot, that I absolutely love for winter, and that's the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia Delta.
Unknown:That's, that's that's a great winter
Jennie Flaming:one, such an incredible place. I mean, it's wonderful year round. Um, one, just note to be aware of, you can't bring dogs there, including on leash, um, because of the wildlife area. And that is not always true in wildlife areas, but it's sometimes, so it's really important to pay attention to that and to honor that when those restrictions are in place. But if you don't have a dog, or you have someone else to hang out with your dog, um, well, you go there again. You know you can go like, four miles round trip on completely flat on the boardwalk trail and boardwalks, and it's wonderful for birds. But even if you're not that into birds, the Nisqually delta is just such a kind of magical place. You know, it's
Craig Romano:one of the last undeveloped deltas in Puget. Sound too many structure of the South you've got still Guam ish and Skagit North Nooksack, but for the southern rivers, most of them look at the Amish. I mean, yeah, so Nisqually definitely stands out. Yeah,
Jennie Flaming:it does. And you know, there's great views there when it's clear, but even when it's not clear, it's just. Yes, it's such an interesting place, and it's named for Billy Frank, Jr, who was a big activist in the 1970s around like the fish wars, and you know, things that involved the Nisqually and the Puyallup people trying to get the United States to honor the treaty they'd signed around fishing rights and so, decision, yeah, yep. And it's pretty cool that that's named for him, and gets really important in Washington, that we're remembering his story. Yeah,
Craig Romano:it was. I mean, if you're new to the state landmark, the bolt decision, 1973 that pretty much decided on the catch. It's like you have to honor these treaties and but there was a lot of civil disobedience leading up to that point in the late 1960s early 70s, pretty contentious. So getting old timers can definitely tell you the story if you knew the area. But it was definitely a pivotal, pivotal point in Washington, absolutely
Jennie Flaming:so. And I know, you know, one thing that we have in common, Craig, is this like interest in history as well as the outdoors, and they're so, I mean, we should do an episode about that, actually. But yeah, this is one of those places where being able to experience the outdoors and the natural world in our state and history really kind of come together. It's certainly not the only one there. We should definitely
Craig Romano:do, you know, shameless plug. Again, I, I wrote, I wrote a book with Judy Bentley University Washington press. I'm hiking in Washington's history. My, yeah, my background is in history. Yeah. I am a certified history geek. We should do more historical stories. We
Jennie Flaming:totally should. Yeah, cool. All right. Well, I think that wraps it up for winter. Everybody. Happy Winter hiking. Welcome to the joys of winter hiking. If it's new to you, you're gonna love it. Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Washington State hiking podcast. Hey, do
Craig Romano:you have questions for Jennie and I to answer in future episodes? If so, the link right below the tip jar lets you leave a voice memo for us. We'd love to hear from you.
Jennie Flaming:And if you are enjoying this ad free podcast, please help support it by contributing to our tip jar. You don't need an account and there's no commitment. It's the first link in the show notes. We also have links in the show notes to our work, both Craig's books, my website. If you would like to support us further.
Craig Romano:Hey again. Thanks again for joining us, and we look forward to the next episode you
