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
Best spring hikes in Washington for 2025
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Jennie and Craig share their favorite hikes across Washington State in spring, updated for 2025
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Craig’s hiking guidebooks (Check out Eastern Washington and Olympic National Park especially for this episode)
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Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host. Jennie Thwing Flaming,
Craig Romano:and I'm your co host. Craig Romano
Jennie Flaming: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. Hey, Craig, well, here we are officially at the legal beginning of spring. Yeah,
Craig Romano:you know. And boy, it has been cooler than normal this year, and I am so glad Spring is here.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, and you know, it's fun, because we started this podcast in the spring, so it's been just over a year, and it's been really wonderful doing with this with you. Thank you so much for saying yes to being my co host.
Craig Romano:It has been my pleasure. It's been a lot of fun. We, you know, even after a year we have, I mean, we're never going to run out of things to talk about. So never.
Jennie Flaming:And, you know, we were when we were talking about, you know, in the second year of the pod, like, do we want to redo some episodes, you know? And, and our spring hikes episode was one of our first ones. And, you know, folks listening, if you want more ideas, definitely go back and listen to that. But also, we're, we're a lot better at this now, so I'm glad that we are doing spring hikes again. So I
Craig Romano:should, I should reiterate, it's not that we're better at hiking, and all sudden, we realize, boy, there's all these great hikes that we need to do. It's just we're talking about them for some reason. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:yes, yes. We have a whole year more of experience working together on this podcast. So you're ready, and we do have another year of experience hiking. I will say, like, I've done quite a few new hikes in the last year, and I've done a few, yeah, cool. Okay, so, um, I'm, first of all, I I have worked hard to learn to love Spring. I think we talked about this before spring just goes on for so long here, especially in western Washington, it's like half the year. It's such a long time. But there are, and I feel like this meteorological spring, you know, that happens at the end of March is like, I feel like we're kind of in spring by then, you know. But then also, some people would say it's 40 degrees and raining, that's not spring, but that could happen in May. So I don't know it's true. I feel like the dominating theme of spring hiking is that it's totally unpredictable.
Craig Romano:That's very, very true. But why do we get excited about it? Is unpredictable. It could still be cold, you know, it could be warm, but one of the guarantees, whether it's cold, warm, windy, whatever is the daylight is longer, and that in itself, is and there's flowers, and usually there are flowers. I mean, matter of fact, they're always flowers, even they're always flowers. I mean, the skunk cabbage, you know, it has come out in February, even when it's cold, even though, right, even those are wild. Yeah, the roadies come a little bit later. We should talk about roadies too, because it is our state flower. The Pacific rose engine, and it only grows in about less than 10% of the state. So it's interesting, 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. But that's everywhere. Lupin would be a great one. You know, I'm not sure if any state has Lupin as your, as your, as your wildflower, I need to check that. We
Jennie Flaming: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't have rhododendrons. Yeah, areas don't have them. Yeah,
Craig Romano:yeah. It's a great flower, but it's just not widespread. Yeah, so
Jennie Flaming:spring is under unpredictable. Waterfalls are amazing. There's snow at high altitude, 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 of Washington or specific trails for spring. What are some of yours? Craig,
Craig Romano:well, again, if, if we're having one of those really cold, wet springs in western Washington, I'm looking at Eastern Washington. I. And one of the best, the anything the Columbia Basin is great in the spring, because it's just too darn hot in the in the summertime. In the fall, things kind of get brown over there too. So spring could be really nice. It could be green. The wildflowers. Temperatures are wonderful. It still gets cool at night. So anything in the channel, Scablands, steamboat, rock. It's a great area. Northrop Canyon, which is also right next to it. Sun, Sun Lakes, yeah, Beasley hills outside of afreda. I mean, these are great places. And even Spokane, yep. You know if you're gonna make the trip, if you live there, great if you're gonna make the trip from the west side, look at places like the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, which is out in a teeny which is great. There's moose out there. So, you know, animal, the animals start having the babies. You always, you know, it's always a good chance of seeing seeing some some young ones. There some calves. Um, Riverside State Park is always a great place. Flowers are coming out there. Dishman Hills, really nice area in a spoke in the Spokane Valley. Great time to be there. And then a little bit farther south, I was just out there last spring, and I forgot how much I love the area, because it because where I live, it's one of the farthest places in Washington to get to the Palouse. Kamiak Butte, yes, is one of the best Wildflower. Matter of fact, it's it represents like 3% of the of the police area that has not been tilled or or settled. So you get to see what, what the police prairie actually looked like before it was tilled. The flowers are amazing. The views are amazing out there. It's a incredible. Matter of fact, it's one of my 100 classic hikes. So, yeah, great place.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, I agree with that. I think a couple other places, and I agree with you about Eastern Washington, fantastic, warm, wild flowers, green and it's and those hills are brown a lot of the year, but they're green and like April and May. So I totally agree. A couple other specific hikes, I would add. One is Chelan Butte or elephant head, like, um, near Lake Chelan,
Craig Romano:you're gonna see, you're gonna see bighorn sheep there, yeah, yeah. And the
Jennie Flaming:flowers up there are awesome and wonderful. You know, the other what's the really popular wildflower hike? That's like sage hills.
Craig Romano:Oh, yeah, I was just gonna talk, yeah, anything in the Wenatchee area? Yeah, April, May is prime
Jennie Flaming:and yes, Chelan Butte or elephant head, which is part way just parted. You don't have to go anywhere. Yeah, that is a good alternative. That's less crowded than sage hills, at least, that's what I've experienced.
Craig Romano:Sage hills are very, very popular mountain bikers, trail runners, but they've been expanding the area. And there's, there's so much in the wenasty foothills to check out. Yep, yep. Absolutely like cashmere canyons is another one of the a lot of people haven't been there. Cool, well, it's the Chelan Douglas Land Trust has been really acquiring a lot of property out there, and they required this one a couple years ago. It's in my day hiking central cascades book, a wonderful place. It's privately owned, but there's an easement on it. It's a 2000 acre preserve and about 10 miles of trails on it. It is incredible. Dogs are not allowed, and this is really important, because the owner can pull the easement anytime if people aren't aren't adhering to his stipulations. So just show up without rover. It is an incredible place to be
Jennie Flaming:awesome. And one other eastern Washington place I wanted to mention is, well, both. It's two places, but they're close together, badger mountain and Candy Mountain near the Tri Cities. I really like Candy Mountain. Actually, they're both great. And if you like wine, there's, like, tons of wineries, like,
Craig Romano:right in the middle. It's right in the middle of the Badgers. Also 100 classic hikes, yeah, yeah.
Jennie Flaming:I know it is. I know it's so cool. Hi everyone. It's Jennie. I just wanted to quickly break into this spring episode to tell you that I am offering a special discount on my hike planners and my Seattle seasonal hiking guide in my shop. And you can get to the shop. It's shop dot ordinary adventures.com, and the link is always in the show notes. And if you use the discount code spring 30 you will get a 30% discount through March 29 that's next Saturday, and that is just to welcome spring and say thank you for listening to the podcast. I also wanted to let you know that this is a great time to pick up one of Craig's books, especially the Eastern Washington one, the Olympic Peninsula one and the gorge one are ones that we talk about a lot in the spring. He also has a brand new book, A. About urban hikes in Vancouver. BC, we'll tell you more about that in a couple weeks. All right, back to the show. So what about other parts of the state? What about the west side?
Craig Romano:Oh, yeah, so I, I just want to reiterate, and we're back in the Wenatchee area, but I'm pulling our I'm pulling West. Gonna another area that a lot of hikers don't they miss this area. Mountain bikers know about it. Trail runners will hit it too. The whole mission Creek area, the devil's Gulch, all that you do not want to be there in the summertime. It is incredibly hot. Spring is wonderful. In there is old growth, poderosa pines. And again, you're going to be seeing a lot of the of the the forest flowers coming out. Great area. Wildlife is amazing. It's one of the few places I've actually seen Bobcat in there. I mean, Bobcat are everywhere, but I just had a great encounter in there. And we'll talk about wildlife later. But anyways, that's a great area, so I would definitely look there. And then the other we're going to go down to Columbia, over the Silver Star area outside of Vancouver, Washington. It's one of the few places you can start getting up really high up. You know, by May, 4000 feet. The wildflowers are incredible. It's in the alcohol burn area that is an absolute must in late spring. So, yep, the Met, how we kind of, we're still kind of, we're still around the eastern side Patterson Mountain, which is right in Winthrop, is a classic wildflower hike and is superb in April and May. So, oh, we're still on the other side. I gotta tell you. Know what my favorite it seems like all my favorite spring places are on the east side of the crest, couch Canyon and, oh yeah, hike. Those are great. But again, you don't want to be in the summertime. They're incredibly hot and they're brown. In the fall, this spring is a great time to be there.
Jennie Flaming:I think couch Canyon is pretty great in the fall. It has some really nice little color. Here's a little color
Craig Romano: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 can check out their website. They have just added on more more places to protecting miles and miles of trails hiking within a couple minute drive from Yakima. Yep, awesome.
Jennie Flaming:Okay, so west side. Now, I agree with you, spring is where it's at for Eastern Washington, and Eastern Washington is where it's at for spring. In this state, it's amazing, okay, but that said on the west side, we are still having a lot of rain, lot of clouds, some warm days, some cold days. That's what we have in spring. So moving over West what are some of your favorites? Well, you
Craig Romano:know, Jennie, you did a whole program on it. Whidbey Island is a great place. You know, Evie is landing. Is wonderful in the springtime. It's one of the few places in western Washington you're going to see cactus. You get to look hard, but it's there lots of flowers, the bald eagles. Wonderful place. And with that said, if we go across, across the inlet to the Olympic Peninsula. A lot of the the valley hikes on the Hood Canal side are make wonderful spring hikes, like in a staircase area. And you can hike. You can hike up the South Fork or the North Fork. It was a comish 1010, 12 miles in spring. So you can these are areas where you're itching to backpacking. You can backpack in this area. Then you can't get into the high country, yet, it's still pretty big. These valleys, very, very long valley hikes you can go in there. That's that's a good, a good area. Same thing the coast, the Dungeness Spit, you know, we start looking at the coastal areas around four towns, and there's some nice coastal hikes you can do in that region. And then again, we're going all the way around the rainforest. Are great in the spring, they're wet, they're really wet, but not as wet in the wintertime and the summer, crowds haven't arrived yet. Now, mind you, the whole whole rainforest, the road is washed out right now. Who knows what's going on with that? Yeah, but bogus shield is really, really easy to get to. The Irish Spring loop is a wonderful family friendly and dog friendly. It's in the National Forest. You can check that out. And then the Quinault area very, very accessible this time of year. So those make great, great hikes for the springtime as well.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah. And you know Craig, one of the most popular all time articles on my website is about visiting Olympic National Park in April. And it's interesting because I wrote that article kind of on a whim after being there in April with my nieces during their spring break, and when I worked as a guide there, I was like, you know, April is pretty great if you know where to go. And you know that, like, the high country is not where it's at that time of year, right? It's more beaches, rivers, rainforest, but it's a wonderful time to go to those places.
Craig Romano:Absolutely, the beaches are incredible that time of year. You know, a lot. If people go out to the Olympic coast in the summer, and summers tend to be, they're they're foggy. You have that cold, cold ocean water, warm air, and they're foggy. My best hikes out there have been the fall. In the spring. Go to places like like the lake oz area in the springtime is amazing. And again, you have long daylight, so you can get, you know, eight o'clock, more for the sunsets and you don't have the crowds. And again, if you're looking for a place to backpack early in the season, the Olympic coast is another great place to for early season backpacking. Yep,
Jennie Flaming:for sure, cool anywhere. I mean, the only other place that I would really want to highlight is the islands, which you already touched on, Craig and last year, when we did our spring episode, we talked about turtle back on Orcas Island. Wonderful hike, really anytime, but the
Craig Romano:San Juans are great again, just for the same reasons. The springtime, the weather's wonderful there. The summer crowds haven't, haven't arrived yet. It's a it's a great time to be in the San Juan Islands
Jennie Flaming:and the islands that you mentioned, you know, that we've talked about before with Whidbey Vashon Bainbridge and or, you know, all the islands. Is a great time for all the islands. Yeah.
Craig Romano:And likewise, people don't tend to think of this area hiking as much, but Long Beach down, and I know Jennie, we've talked led better point, though, the trails are flooded until early summer, so but yeah, tell you late, late spring, if it's warm and you're flooded, you just, you know, they're great to wait during that time of year. It's very, very cold in the winter time, but it's Yeah, but there's some great hikes. A whole new network of trails on the South Bay in the will of will open National Wildlife Refuge. I have them highlighted in my upcoming third edition of the day hiking Olympic book, so you can check out the whole net new network of trails there. So that's a great place also in the springtime. And then, of course, we've talked about this ad nauseam, but the Columbia River Gorge is prime in the spring, the flowers are incredible. In the springtime, the waterfalls are roaring. That's one of the best times to be in the gorge. And you will not be alone in the gorge. In the spring,
Jennie Flaming:you will not it's very busy there, but it's cool. All right, before we wrap up, I want to just mention to everybody listening that if you want to support the podcast, you can, number one, leave us a tip, which we really appreciate. Thank you. The other thing you can do that really helps us is leave us a rating and or a review that really helps with other people finding the podcast, and helps us be able to grow keep bringing you the podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Happy Spring. You.
