The Best Loop Hikes in Washington

Jennie and Craig discuss their favorite loop hikes for day hikes and backpacking across Washington State.

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Transcript

 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. If you're the kind of hiker who likes a little elbow room, wonderfully wild northeast Washington might just be your kind of place. We're talking millions of acres of public lands to explore forests, peaks and hidden lakes where it's easy to find your own stretch of trail. It's a bit off the beaten path, but that's kind of the point. Spend the day hiking, then roll into a small town for a delicious and restorative burger and an ice cold beverage. Northeast Washington is the kind of place where adventure feels easy and crowds are hard to find. Start planning your visit today@www.wonderfullywild.com. I. Alright, Craig, today we are talking about loop hikes, your favorite loop hikes in Washington. And listeners, this is in response to a question from wind Chime and wind chime. Thank you so much for asking this question. It's a great topic. Who doesn't love a loop? And. If you thought we forgot you, we never forget. You listeners, we keep track of your questions and we work 'em in, so please keep them coming with that text message button. Okay? And, and this is, this is a great question. It's, um, because who doesn't like to get loopy on the trails? Uh, I love loops. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, but yeah, that we did ask for that one. That's true. But, you know, I, I don't know who wind chime is. . Are you looking for long loops? Short loops. So I'll try to address that because, wind chime just said some new ideas, some new idea. Well, you're definitely gonna get that from me. Yeah. And obviously one of the best things about, about loops is not having to repeat, the terrain that you've, you've already hiked in on. So with that said, probably if you were to ask me what is my. Absolute favorite hike. You know, what are some of my favorite hikes? Period in, in the state. Some of them are loops too, so, , let's start the Olympic Peninsula because, okay, why not? That sounds good. Why not? So, one of my all time favorite hikes there, and I've done this, as a day day trip though it's, it's long for most people. I've done it overnight, all kinds of variation. That would be the high divide. And I, I believe you've done that one. Jennie Have you, have you not? I've done part of it. I haven't done the whole loop. Okay, you've got in So incentives to go back. The high, the high divide, the shortest variation is gonna be about 18 miles. But you can, you can make it much longer by exploring all kinds of lakes. It is absolutely spectacular. Um, it's a great, it's a great trail run. It's a great week trip if you wanna spend, so love that. If that's a little too much and you still wanna do something in the Olympics, let's just go up, , a little to the north on the coast there and do Stripe peak. The new Stripe peak loop Oh is fantastic. Love. I knew you liked, liked that one that I knew. I knew you liked that one. That's a great year round. Any weather one. Yeah, that's what, like about it. Yeah. Yep. And, um, what else do, do, that's much shorter. Strip peak used to be in my, in my book, literally in my book, kind of just a so-so hike. And now it is definitely a really good hike. It it. Because the trail used to just end on a logging road, and it was kind of anti-climatic. But the Washington Trail Association has made it into a loop. You go up to the summit now and the views of Crescent Beach and, and looking Yeah. Uh, down the street of Juan De Fuca, they're classic. You're not gonna get that anywhere else. You do have some old growth. You start in. Mm-hmm. You go through some old bunkers. It used to be part of a, a, a fort in, in that area. Mm-hmm. If you're camping at Salt Creek. County Park. You can just do it from the campground there. It's not gonna beat you up, uh, one main long hike and then, uh, you're kind of up on the, on the peak for a while and then a nice gradual downhill. Yep. Yeah, it's a great one. What else? So anything else on Olympic or are we gonna move? Well, those are the ones, the Olympic gets a little tougher, uh, for loops. There are, other loop hikes you can do over there. The rainforest. Over in the Queets, there's a nice little 3.9 mile loop called the Sam's River Loop. Uh, that's on the, that's on the Queets River Valley. That's a, that's a wonderful loop. Yeah. Uh, same thing. You can camp out there and do that. Uh, and um, that's one more than likely you're not gonna see very many people there know that can. Good choice, uh, good chance of seeing elk. Yep. So that's a nice little loop in, in that area too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we also talked back during, so we're talking about back in April when we had a couple of guests from the Olympic Peninsula. So Matt, you and Matt talked about that one. And when Tommy was on, we also talked about the ette triangle at the coast, which is a fantastic, is one of my favorite leaves. Yeah. Yeah, we've, we've talked about that a lot. Yeah, for sure. Another one. Never get tired of Okay. Done it in different times of the year. Right. Let's, so where are we going next? Let's go to Cascade. So, okay. So, you know, I, um, some of my favorite terrain for running, uh, is off of the Highway two area. I love this area for running, uh, the trails, the grades, the wild flowers, the access and the opportunity, for looping, which is nice. I don't have to do, these out and backs and everything, which so much of the terrain. So one of my absolute favorite places is, is. We're gonna use Blue Lake as the centerpiece to this so you can access and here's how we're, this I can give you. Yeah. Can you explain which Blue Lakes, Washington has, has like four of them. This is Blue Lake. Okay. In the Henry Jackson wilderness. This is in my backpacking book., And you can do this from the north or the south. Uh, and I can give five different variations here of, of looping all around between 25 and 30 miles, which is, which makes great backpacking and great, , ultra running. So the North fork of the Salk River is off the mountain loop highway. One of the, classic. Ways to do this is go up the North Fork sock to White Pass. That's a one of the main ways to get to the PCT then go south on the PCT. Then you come back on the Bald Eagle Trail to Blue Lake and then across Pilot Ridge. Cool. You'll not see very many people on the Pilot Ridge area. You'll see some people in the PCT particularly towards the end of the summer. Yep. The lake is great, great spot. If you're camping, that's a spectacular place to camp. There's campsites all along the river valleys. Don't think about camping on Pilot Ridge. It's dry. There's no water. That's gonna be the hardest part of the hike. Um, but you're gonna, you're gonna, the solitude's there. The thing that I like about, if you stay, if you're camping that blue, , blue Lake, you definitely wanna do the side trip to Johnson Mountain. Mm-hmm. Which is above it, used to be a fire lookout up there, and it's one of those ones, you stand there and has one of , the best views. For the whole central North cascade area. It's unbelievable. So that's fantastic. Absolutely love that. Another way to do this is from the South, you come in from the North Fork of the Skykomish. So currently the road from Index is washed out again, so you're gonna need to go in through Beckler River, then through Skykomish, highway two, Beckler River. Then you go up. Quartz Creek Trail and it's a really gentle approach. You're gonna climb 800 feet, four mile, then up the Bald Eagle Trail, things get more serious again. Then you can drop down into Blue Lake that way. Mm-hmm. So you can do that, or you stay on the bald, the bald Eagle Trail to Dish Pan Gap. Now you've got two choices to make your loop. Coming back for the shorter loop you can drop down, uh, the north fork, sky, all old growth, really nice hike. You've got more energy. You wanna make this into a 30 mile loop. Keep going on the PCT and come back on Katy Ridge Benchmark Mountain. Now you're gonna be all views. Um, you're up on this Long Ridge Huckleberries. Spectacular. Another one. Again, I just did this not that long ago in the summertime with my buddy. We did it as a day run and we encountered six people the entire day. Now my view, that's really cool. Yeah, we passed. Blanca, lake Trailhead. There was probably, , six people just starting the hike at the moment. We passed them,. This is another thing I like about this area. It does not get crowded. Yeah. Now your other option, you can do it from the east. You can come in from the Lake Wenatchee side, and again, check again. There's been fires, so the roads periodically change and go up the West. Katy Ridge, that one's really tough. It's a steep climb, but you get up and the fuse, the wildflowers, it's the cover. Of my day hiking the Central Cascade book. You wanna see, it's the cover of the book. Beautiful Flowers. It's a beautiful photo. Yeah. Fanta, thank you. You can go up there and then you can come down to Little Wenatchee, or you can go all along and come down through Katy Pass. Mm-hmm. All old Grove. Six different loops in this one variation here. And I, and I, I do 'em differently all the time. Different types of the year. It's fairly close to, to, to the Seattle area. You don't need permits, you know, just your pass to park. You don't have to worry about quotas and everything. So if all of a sudden it's a great, gonna be, a great weekend and you wanna go backpacking, this is a great choice, great area. Talking about permits , the grand loop probably in Washington would be. Would be, the Wonderland Trail. The Wonderland trail is probably the grandest loop in, March. Right. So we're talking about the famous Rainier National Park. Trail that goes all the way around Mount Rainier. Right. And there's several of these,, around some of our, our volcanoes. Yep. So the wonderlands loop, you're looking at, almost a hundred miles. Yeah. A lot of elevation and a lot of competition for permits too. Right? The hardest part of this is getting the permitting. What I find too, if all that is, is too much the time permit, the Northern Loop is a great. Great alternative to this and the northern loop is kind of like a, um, wonderland trail light. It's still not, you're looking at about 33 miles if you do it from the sunrise side, about 10,000 feet of elevation gain. So it's certainly a tough, a tough hike. Yeah, I was gonna say, getting the permit is not the tough part on that one. Right. You can generally, you still, have to get, you know, permit, but you probably have a better chance of, of that one. One loop is great yes. Um, so that's a classic. And then probably the other classic, um. Loop trail around our volcanoes would be the LUT trail, uh, around Mount St. Helens. Um, you know, Craig, that is a hike that I've never done. I I have climbed Mount St. Helen's a couple times and I would love to do the LUT trail. It's, it's, I would absolutely love to. It's a bucket. But here's the thing about the Lewit is about 32 miles around. Yeah. So it's not. Uh, no. Nowhere near what Mount Rainier, and it's actually right. Much shorter than, than Mount Hood. And I've done the Timberline Trail, which goes around Mount Hood a couple times. Yep. The Louis Trail is much harder. Um, yeah, I believe. Believe that. Yeah. The main reason is the terrain. Um, yeah. You're gonna, and, and there's no shade. So if it's summer, I mean, climbing St. Helen's is so tough, partly because you're just like. You're exposed. Yeah. The most, except for the first two miles, you're, you know, the like kind of warm up trail hike. After that, you're on the rocks and in the sand and it's really intense. It's really intense. You will go through a couple of patches of old growth forests. Going along this, but, but that's in the minority. A lot of it. You're gonna be going across pice fields. Yep. Um, you're gonna be going across old LABA flows, which are Yep. Very difficult to, um, yeah. To, to, to hike or, and certainly even more difficult to run it. Um, and then, um, the northern. There's 10 miles stretch through, through the blast zone where mm-hmm. There's no water most of the time. Yeah. Um, you have to wait for snow melt in the summertime till later in the day the water starts flowing, then you gotta filter it. It's got all kinds of silt in it and everything. Yeah. Um, you can't camp there legally. You can't camp in this 12 mile area, so you have to. You have to really make sure you're time. It's almost like doing the coast, you know you have to Yeah. Time everything, correct. Yep. And then the Tootle River, which is notoriously, you have to go down a rope ladder. That washes out. Not an easy. Um, loop at all. No. So if that, if that intimidates you, I would, I would point you more to Mount Hood to, to consider doing. Mm-hmm. I know that's not, it's almost in Washington. That's much. Yeah. It's Hello neighbors. We've talked about how much we love our neighbors in Oregon and, and the timber is on those. It's a classic. I've done that one a couple of times. Mm-hmm. So anyways. Let's go back to some easier stuff. Okay. So, so, and since I, I kind of mentioned Oregon. I'm gonna talk about Washington, though the Portlanders seem to know more about this part of Washington than the Washingtonians. Mm-hmm. So if you're, in Vancouver, Clark County, this is, , directed you the Trapper Creek wilderness. Love this area. Yeah, yeah. Love this area. Mm-hmm. Right off the Columbia River Gorge. And it's one of our smallest wilderness areas. But it's got a great trail system. And again, you can do about three different loops, three loops at around 14 to 16 miles. So, um. You know, they great long day hike or, a moderate trail run, or, a nice, you know, nice two day trip, uh, a one night or, you go up the Trap Creek Valley, which is all old growth. It's unbelievable. And then you can come down either on How Ridge, which is all open after you, after you go up to Observation Peak, and you can stand on this former lookout area and see. Five volcanoes surrounding you. It's incredible. Mm-hmm. Amazing. Or you can, it's just incredible. Or you can drop down and, do the dry creek, uh, the big hollow area, a little bit longer, uh, coming down that way. But more than likely, you're probably not gonna see anybody on that. There's a great spring off, that you can fill up your water when you start on that trail goes through a pretty bad burn zone. The trail's been in great shape. And then when you get back down to the valley, you're back in the old growth again following an old logging railroad grade. Mm-hmm. All these are all in my, my day hiking the Columbia River Gorge book. I have a whole chapter on, , trapper Creek. It's one of my absolute favorite places. I, I feel it, it's underrated when I show up every time I've been there. There might be, you know, 10, 15 cars in the, in the main parking lot. 90% of 'em have Oregon license plates. So, the Oregonians know about it. Yeah. What about Eastern Washington? There's some good stuff you can do out there, and here's an easy, uh, easy loop. It's when I took my son on when he was about four years old. And, this is the Sherman Loop in, in the, uh, in the Kettle River area. Yeah. Uh, so this is out between Republic and Colville. Um, kettle, you know, there's a, there's a 40 mile trail that goes along the crest. That's not a loop. Yeah. Yeah. And you got all these feeder trails really makes it difficult. But I'll tell you, I'll give you another loop choice in there, but one of the classic write off of Sherman Pass, , the Sherman loop and that's great. Yeah. And it doesn't go over the summit, uh, of Sherman but that makes it a more, more chill. Yeah. It's the elevation is much or you could scramble, could easily scramble up, up, up, up to the top on that. The other really nice loop in this area, and I've done this many, many times, and this is, so near, near Klu, near Klu Lake, you access from, from the west side, uh, this is the midnight ridge and,, the old stage coach, so the old stage coach trail mm-hmm. Goes all the way across. It was a state highway, you know, in the 18 hundreds. Um, so it's, it's, it's quite wide and well graded. , And you can do that. It goes up to, up to the kettle. The, kettle crest, you'll walk a little bit, you can scramble all open if you wanna hit the top of midnight peak, or you can go the other way and hit, copper Butte, the highest summit in,, the kettles., And then you come down, on the,, midnight Ridge Trail. And the, what I love about that trail, again, first, the last time I did this was in August. We never saw anybody in August and. Old growth, Ponderosa pines, giant, beautiful pines, and a lot of like the open, open, grassy areas. , Just spectacular. Very, very, yeah. Totally different, , environment than you'd get, , in the Cascades. . It's one of my absolute favorite areas. , Of Washington. It's so underrated. I mean, we've talked about it many times, but I'm sure we'll talk about it many more times. This like. And around the kettles and the Selkirks and Republic and Ulu Lake and, and like all of that, it's like if you wanna get away from crowds, like yes, if you live in greater Seattle, it's a longer drive. But it's such a fantastic area. It's so beautiful and. People just aren't familiar with it, and it takes a little more of an effort. And I just so agree with you, Craig. I don't think we can talk about it enough. I wanna back up again. Back to Mount St. Helen's. Okay. So I talked about the, main, uh, the lut, but, there are other loops you can do in, in the Mount St. Helens area, and they offer some different variety. So one of the, the classic, and definitely not an easy, hike, is the mountain Margaret Backcountry Lakes. And, and this is a great one. Now this is another one. It's, I, I. You, a lot of people, it's in my backpacking book. And it's also, it's all in my mount. They hike in Mount St. Helens book. Here's the challenge with the Mountain Margaret backcountry loop. First of all, the terrain is, pretty challenging to get in there, but there is backcountry campsites in there, but they're strictly limiting as far as the permitting. So it's really tough to get the permit. So, , if you get, if you can't get the permit, then you can consider doing this as a day trip Now to make it a loop. Means you have to come back on Mount Whittier, which is probably the scariest trail. In, in, in, in Washington. And I don't say this lightly. Wonderful. It's comforting. It's only 2.1 miles long. It's gonna take you two hours to get across because it's exposed. It's a scramble. And here's the good side. Uh, if you didn't get that backpacking permit, I wouldn't wanna do that trail with a 30 pound backpack on. No, you're much more nimble doing it, you know, just some light gear. If you are not afraid of heights, , exposure, if you're surefooted, , you'll have one of the most thrilling experiences, uh, on this. , It is incredible. , In my backpacking book, I, I suggest you actually don't do the loop and back up and just go out and back. But if you're, if you're surefooted and everything, that's a good one. Now here's, if that sounds terrible, uh, or scary, let's just go to the north, still staying in Mount St. Helens, and I'm gonna give you two loops. You can do that one. You're not gonna, you're not gonna be competing for, for space. You don't need permits, so you can just show up. And so one of them is the Green River. Loop in here in the goat mountain. Mm-hmm. It's about a 20 mile loop. Mm-hmm. , It makes a great run or a nice one night out, two nights if you prefer, you're gonna pass a couple of lakes. You're gonna go through some beautiful old growth forest that was, put aside that, that the blast intake and then you're gonna hike on Goat Mountain Right on. The demarcation between the blast zone and where, and it's amazing. Looking to the south, everything's been blasted out. Looking to the north, it's all untouched. It's beautiful growth and meadows, it's one of the coolest experiences. So that's a good one. Now if you really wanna get away from people and seeing nobody, but, but you're not gonna see Mount St. Helen's on, on this loop, but you're in the St. Helen's national volcanic mine. This is the Tum Water Mountain Loop. This is about a 24 mile, a 24 mile loop of about nine miles of it is through Old Growth Forest Meadow. You're not gonna see anybody, on this. It is, it is one of the quietest trails. It's all in the national Monument. So you can do that. You come back,, you can camp at, at Monds Lake on that one, which is the same one by goat. You kind of connect. You can go up to Vanson Peak and get an incredible view on there too. But it's, but it's primarily, it's a forested hike. It's a lot of trees. There's a, waterfall in there you actually hike behind, like in the Columbia River Gorge. Uh, but the main attraction on this one. Is solitude. So, , everyone wants to be where, where those views of St. Helens are. So you access this off of Highway 12, so you're coming in from the north, near, Morton that way. So that one. And then the other place,. It used to be a volcano. So it's part of the same. So this is , the goat rocks goat, and another classic hike in the goat rocks. Probably one of the most spectacular loops you can do. And this is in my Backpacking Washington book as well. And same thing, I've done this, as a day trip. If you're a trail runner, it's a great run. , Or you can spend a lot of different places hiking. This is the Goat Lake Hawkeye Loop. So you, you go up Snow Grass Flats, which is the most popular hike in. The goat rock wilderness. Mm-hmm. But then you're gonna leave it and you're gonna head to Goat Lake, which sits in this giant circ. Uh, and then you'll go up to Hawkeye Peak, which I have never seen more goats in my life. Uh, I've sat up there with 50, 60 goats all over the place. I mean, there's a reason they call goat box Wilderness. And then you're gonna come back down the goat ridge right back to where you started. It is a fantastic. Fantastic loop. Um, 'cause that's another goat rock's another place. It's hard to loop because you do that crest, there's feeding trails. Yeah. So this is a place where you, you or you know, you might be able to loop, but you may have to walk a couple miles on a road or something like that. But this one, you, you come right back to where you start it. Yep. So, so anyway, these are some of my, my favorites. I've done them, um, multiple times. They're great for, for running for long day hikes. Then that, or, or backpacking. And then you can extend them too. You can, you know the great thing about backpacking too is setting up a base camp and then doing side trails from, from these places too. Totally. Yeah. You can adapt them based on how much time you have, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. What about Jennie? 'cause you hike more in the Snoqualmie Pass area than I do. Um, yeah. Yeah. I'd say. What about loops in that, in that region? Yeah. You know, it's funny because, I haven't done all the ones you mentioned, but some of them I have in there I was thinking about that one. One, this is not an I 90, but I just wanna give it a shout out. It's a, it's a not a true loop 'cause it's like a lollipop. Yeah. You know, which is like, there's a little bit, there's, yeah. But I still consider those loops. Yeah. I really love the Crawford Oaks Trail in the Columbia River Gorge, which it's a nice hike. There's like a lot of loops. There are a lot of different ways you can do it, including a not a loop. But that one is pretty cool if you, it's like a lollipop loop and listeners, it's a great flower hike when places like dog fantastic nar like bananas and completely bonkers. . It is not as crowded as that, so that's worth saying right there. But it's beautiful. It's in the gorge. Thanks for mentioning that too, because, it's a great, loop hike,, on the drier, warmer side of the gorge. But another place, if you're looking for lots of loops to do, of varying lengths and you know, from shorter to much longer the whole Catherine Creek area. Um mm-hmm. The coyote wall, all that. So that's right in the center of the gorge. It's, yeah, it's beautiful. The oak pine transition. It's pretty popular. Mountain bikes, some of them, but, but there are trails again in that area. That , the natural arch area, that's a nice three mile loop you can do. Yeah. Mm-hmm. In, that area. And then same thing on coyote, coyote wall. You can go up one way and come down another. Yeah. So lots, of loop opportunities there. Mount Hamilton, um, is in Beacon Rock State Park. Wonderful. I think about six and a half mile loop you can do on that one. Yeah. Yeah. Or you can make it an eight mile by staying on the ridge. There's miles of old, uh, fire roads and trails in there, so you can do a lot of looping, , in that region. Um, yep. Cape Horn. Which is also one of my a hundred classic hikes is another great loop that you can do in, in the Gorge. You'll walk a little pavement in that, but it's a, uh, dead end road. Um, so it's really quiet. It's a beautiful walk. But for the most part it's, it is a fantastic, um, you're up on this ridge above Cape Horn where all the cars always stop and now you're above that and you get these views. Yeah. Up and down the gorge. That's a classic, yeah, a classic book as well. It's for sure. The old loop I didn't, didn't mention, which is, probably one of the most popular large hikes in Washington. Should we mention it at all? It's a loop. It's a great loop too. I was GI was gonna let it go. Okay. Because But I feel like now we can't say all this and not finish the thought, even though I'm sure. Yeah. I'll be honest with you, I, this is a loop that I don't care for as a loop. I like it as an out and back. We're talking about Maple Pass. Mm-hmm. Wow, so you don't loop. I don like the loop because the steepness and I love loop hikes. Loops are my favorite. Yeah. Well, okay, we're talking about Maple Pass in the North Cascades, which is a great, yeah, I would 20, yeah. Lake summer, late summer wildflower hike, and then a great large hike in the fall and it's totally bonkers all the time. The combat parking and all that it is, which is often on weekdays also. Um, the thing about the maple pass loop for me is that what I would call the back half or the boring half of that. It's not half, it's like a third. And that's the steep part. Yeah. Yeah. It's the part. If you started from the parking area and did the loop counterclockwise, right, it would be the last third, yeah. Ish. Does that sound right, Craig? Yeah. Or it would be the first third if you went the other way. So listeners, if you're not familiar with this hike, it's like, um, seven and a half or eight mile loop. It's got 17 or 1800 feet of elevation gain. It's not an easy hike, but it does. Except for that back part. What I like about Maple Pass is I like that when you go up counterclockwise, you see interesting things that are changing the whole time. And the climb is fairly gentle. Yeah. So, and you get up to Heather Pass and you see Ls there, and then you get up to Maple Pass and you see these great views. For me, and again, this is a matter of preference, like I said, I've done the loop. Quite a few times. I like loops in general, but this one I find a little crushing because, you're either, either you'd go up that way, which gives you like a, I don't know, that's probably a two mile stretch. It's pretty steep, like a really steep, really steep, very forested. There aren't many views there., Really steep hike to start. And, and you know why this, why it's like this, you know? So Maple Pass, 'cause it's a hike in the cascade. No, no, no. But why the, why the main part of the trail is so gentle because Maple Pass was originally, um, planned to be for the PCT and so that makes sense 'cause it's right next to it. Were building, they were building the trail. So it's, it's created for horses. Yeah. So that first part, and then they got up to Maple Pass and they abandoned it and they decided let's put the PCT. Somewhere else. And it came up bridge. Yeah. Like half a mile away or whatever. Right. And it came up and it avoided that period. So what happened eventually is that a user built trail kind of worked its way down that steep area to make it into a loop, but it was never decided. Yeah, that makes sense that way. And that's why it's two different trails. Yep. Yeah. Yep. That, that makes a lot of sense. So I think for me, I, I would prefer to do. The really cool part of the hike twice than to do the part that I don't care for. But that's, you know, I'm in the minority that No, I, that's really valid. I, I think that's great. Yeah. And, and you're gonna have totally different views looking down on the lake, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I, so I like to turn around. Where that sign, where the National Park boundary is. Yeah. And there is a sign. Yeah. And you, you do to do the loop. You do go up further from there. So that's fine. But like I, I don't know. For me, I like having more time on the part that I think is cooler. No, that's, that's, that's a great point. Anyway. Okay. So back to what you asked me like nine years ago about the I 90 corridor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so one thing that I think is kind of cool about the Snoqualmie Pass I 90 corridor with hikes. Now, keep in mind these hikes tend to be really busy a lot of the year, right? Yes. There's no getting around that. However, I. There are so many trails that if you get into the habit of actually like looking at the map, you know, like getting a green trails map or something like that, and like looking at where the trails are, you can kind of build your own hikes, which is. Fun. You don't, and in a really busy area, it's kind of a nice way to do something different. So that's like a blanket statement, but also like they're around Silver Peak, which is kind of like really close to the ski area. Yep. There's a pretty chill, it's also a lollipop. Like you go up and then you go round and you come back. That's pretty cool. Um. I think you're on the PCT there for a short uh, p Yes. You are on the PC for a short. Yeah. Um, and so I really like that , so I guess what I would say about loops and I 90 is like, don't be afraid to get the map and be like, you know, you can tell how steep it's gonna be with where the red line of the trail goes relative to the con contours of the hillside. Right. That's kind of a fun adventure if you want to. Make it, even if you live in the greater Seattle area and you wanna make it even closer to home and do that thing more easily, you can do the same thing at Cougar Mountain. Um, oh God, yeah. Yeah. So many little opportunities. Regional park, you can do it at Squak Mountain State Park, where again, you're talking about a place with so many trails, you can make your own loop, basically, whatever distance, whatever elevation gain you wanna do, you can make it happen. In Cougar Mountain or Squak Mountain. So I hope that doesn't sound like I'm like hedging too much, but I do that sometimes. I'm like, I want something different. I know I like the licorice burn trail and I know I like the Cold Creek Falls Trail. Like, how long is it gonna be if I put those together and like, how do I get back to my car? You know, you have to make sure you're coming out at the same trailhead, It, is funny because I wasn't even thinking I do that all the time too. Like at Rainier. Yeah. Yep. You can do the same thing. They're not, yeah. Advertise. I've done, I've started at the White River campground and hiked up. To boroughs and then come back down Yeah. Into Glacier Basin. Yeah. Um, at Olympic, uh, a great one, if you want a good workout, is going to Lake, lake Angeles, uh, and then going all the way up to Khani Ridge. Mm-hmm. And then coming back. Heather Park. Yep. That's another one half of that loop. You're gonna see nobody, Heather Park does not get a lot of people. Um, they're all at the lake. They're, they're so. So, yeah, you can be creative. And I was just thinking about the I 90, one of my favorite loops in that area. Matter of fact, it's one of my a hundred classic hikes, and I just redid this last year in the summertime where everybody's at Ingles. Everybody goes to Ingles. Yeah. Go to Esmeralda Basin. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then keep going to Gallagher Head Lake. And then you can come out at Fortune that you're gonna see nobody on, on that. Yeah. It's a great loop. Everybody's up. They're going, they're, they're going to Ingles. Yeah. Uh, that's a nice move. And yeah, and I think just to say a little more about both Squak Mountain and Cougar Mountain, like when, I mean, you can choose your own adventure, I mean. Like, you could start, say, at the Sky County, the Sky Country Trailhead in Cougar Mountain. So this is in a neighborhood in Bellevue, right? If you're in the Seattle area, this is not a, a huge commitment of time driving, whatever. I mean, you could take an Uber there. Um, I haven't done that. I would if I, you know, if it made sense, um. You can do, you know, coal Creek falls, which is this time of year, August when you're listening to this is dry it. Yeah, it's, but from like, whenever it starts raining until May or June, it's a beautiful little waterfall. Okay. So you can do this wonderful little three mile loop with like 300 feet of elevation gain, if that's what you're feeling. Or you could do like a 20 mile loop with like. 1500 feet of elevation gain into, I've done a 50 K at Cougar Mountain. Yeah. From the same trailhead, right? Or probably even further. Right. So what's cool about that is like having some go-tos like that, that are like, I know how to get here, I know how this works. Um, and then you can build different things based on what you're interested in. And then like Squak Mountain or Tiger Mountain for that matter, you know, you can do. You can do the same thing or someplace like Poo point, totally bonkers, busy hike. Mm-hmm. This time of year, a lot of the year. But you know, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to park like at the high school Trailhead. Do you go up to Poo Point the long way, come down the short way or the other way, ran and like, I've done that. That's great. And take a ride share for the two miles between the two trailhead or go with a friend and park. So I guess what I wanna say is like we've talked about some wonderful kind of. Organized loop hikes. But there are so many that you can make by yourself, especially in these busy areas, which I, I think is really worth mentioning. And, don't be afraid too I, where I've made loose where I've had to maybe walk a road back a mile or something like that. No big deal. Deal. Or if again, if you're going with, um, you know, someone else, you can position a couple of cars, you can do a lot of those in I 90. Being creative, you can have a nice long one way, it might not be the most convenient where you come back. To the trailhead, but it's still doable. Uh, there's a lot of those. I can't believe, I didn't initially think it 'cause because I just brought this up, uh, one of our other podcasts we're talking about, so probably one of the. Finest loops, and this is a day hike. This is not a crazy trail run. This is a nice day hike loop. I've taken my parents on, , I've taken people like I I they never hiked in the Northern wind. Go. This is chain lakes loop. Mm-hmm. Up the Mount Baker Highway. Mm-hmm. And we, we, we just talked about this too. This is a great loop. About eight miles. Not , a lot of elevation 'cause you're starting up high. A little bit of climbing, uh, lots of lakes as is name denotes a lot of open territory, a lot of views. Spectacular. Uh, you won't be alone though, so just, just be aware of that. But it is, it is a great hike okay. I'm just gonna share a couple of chill loop day hikes that are like my soul hikes. Alright. That just absolute. My top ones in all of Washington State, along with some of the other ones you've heard about before. One of them is the nachos Peak loop at Chinook Pass, especially. Yep. The one my hundred classics, especially during, wild Flower, flower Season. , Which is now, and just a pro tip for that 'cause it's very busy there. Oh yeah. A couple years ago, Jay and I did that hike and. If you know that my husband Jay does not hike that he likes this hike. So that should really tell you something., First weekend of August, peak wildflower season, we got there at 6:00 PM Smart. Yeah. And we saw three people. Yeah. On the trail. Now this is about a four mile loop, four or 500 feet of elevation gain. So you can start at 6:00 PM I mean, we had had lamps, we were in the dark when we were coming back. Yeah. But no combat parking. It was gold. We were there primarily for flower photography and um. It was amazing. One. And the lighting, that one. The, you know, it's funny you mention that because Oh, incredible. The la the last time I did that loop, I was coming back from Yakima and I said, I'm gonna take the Scenic way. Yeah. And I got over the pass late in the day and like Yep. It was optimal hiking, nobody on the trail. Fantastic lighting. Yeah. And you know, there's gonna be snow there till at least early July, if not later. So this is like a late July, August, September until whenever the pass closes and it snows. Right thing. And then the other one is EBS landing on Whidby Island. Oh, of course down here you don't have to do it as a loop, but it's pretty unique to like start and go up this bluff and then walk back on the beach. That's one of my a hundred classics as well. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's amazing. And it's pretty chill. It's like 300 feet of elevation gain and it's, I believe about four miles if you do the whole loop. Uh, wonderful One. And then try to try to tie with a lower ti. You can do it in high tide, but lower tides are easier walking, less exhausting. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. And you can extend that too by extending your beach hike. You can get down and walk. Totally. Yeah. It, it's, I've done that so many times. Yeah. It's, it's pretty close to where any day of the, any day of the year, never get tired of it. Literally, it doesn, doesn't matter what the weather is or what the season is and it's in the rain shadow, so that's the thing. Yeah. So even it could be raining in Seattle and you'd be pleasantly surprised when you get there. And it could also be raining there, and it'll still be great. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Okay, so finally I'm going to put up one. This is just because this is our podcast and I wanna talk about it. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. You can't get to this hike right now. RIP Mawi Lake Entrance Station. Oh yeah. Marre National Park is the mother mountain loop. Yeah, that's a great one. Now of course you can get there. You can add on several days It's my favorite. Backpacking that nap trip in Washington. , Un unfortunately. Yeah, I I I might be taking it out the next edition if the road isn't in the open. Yeah, I think, I think you have to, 'cause it's. Yeah, it's just an add-on to the Wonderland now. Yeah. It's a shame. Hopefully we've inspired everyone to try, try out some loop hikes. Craig and I would love to thank wonderfully wild northeast Washington for being our sponsor for the month of June. Thank you so much. And listeners, thank you for listening. You can really help us out by leaving a rating. Or a review wherever you're listening to the pod. I know you hear this with every podcast you listen to, but the reason is it really makes a difference in helping other people find us. And the more people who find us, the more we are able to keep bringing you more episodes and get support like from our wonderful sponsors. So thank you so much for taking a moment to do that, and we'll see you next week.