Great trail! Very rainy, lots of slugs and newts along the trail! Gentle climb through second growth forest and flora

We spent an unexpectedly sunny day at Dosewallips State Park. The beach trail is ready (and then some!) for WTA's annual Twilight Crew to re-gravel. There are some excellent puddles! Though my feet were thrilled by the feel of cool, spring mud squelching around each toe, some hikers looked a little daunted. After enjoying the sun, an eagle in her nest along the river, and a belted kingfisher on the beach side, we couldn't resist doing the Maple Valley Loop, along the re-route, up the hill, then down the fire road to Maple Valley and the Rhody Cut-off. The trails are in great shape. A few seasonal we spots served to wash the mud and fir needles from our boots. The park was in full swing today with lots of campers and folks on the beach, but very few on the trails that we saw. What a gift of a day!

Last weekend, WTA Crew Leaders and Assistant Crew Leaders converged on Dosewallips State Park for some socializing, review of the year, delicious food, and of course work! We got a ton done, and I wanted to show it all off, so I dragged my husband and dog out there this weekend. Our goal was to walk all the trails, and we did all but the Izzet grade, plus a little 1/2 mile detour on what is kindly referred to as a "Meg trail". Of note - the park is doing a major construction project to replace the culvert at the main entrance, so you need to use the first east entrance (just after the Geoduck, opposite the regular entrance) and loop around. It is very well signed; the main entrance is closed. This also affects some of the trails and made our bid to hike every foot of trail yet more challenging. It's also a little noisy, so if you're looking for a quiet hike, wait until construction's done. We started up the Maple Valley Trail, took the Rhody Ridge cutoff, down across the scout bridge (replaced by WTA in 2010), and up the Railroad Grade. This intersects with the Fire Road, which is closed for construction, so we took a little jaunt through the woods to hit the Steam Donkey trail just above the spillway (pool that was used to power the Steam Donkeys for logging). We took the big loop down and through Maple Valley. The reroute WTA did last fall is great, and last weekend WTA finished decommissioning the old trail that was often a bog, improving the reroute and RR grade, and lots of tread and brushing on the Maple Valley trail. We appreciated all the work and the glorious autumn colors. All the trails we hiked today are in great shape (they'd better be!), and the maples are at the tail end of their show. You can barely smell the salmon, but there are a few late spawners still swimming the river, and many of their compatriots adding to the nutrients.

We took this day hike in Dosewallips State Park after visiting another nearby short hike in the Olympic National Forest, Murhut Falls. The day was beautifully overcast and it never rained on us. The trail was well maintained and provided a relaxing and enjoyable hike. This trail is a loop and it has a few smaller loops that can shorten the hike if it is needed. Along the trail we found lots of diverse examples of moss and lichen. Once we reached the large pond on the Steam Donkey trail, we were surprised to find lots of salamanders swimming within. There was a large group of them writhing together underwater in which we could only assume was some sort of large mating group. With an internet search, it is possible they were rough-skinned newts. (http://www.burkemuseum.org/herpetology/amphibians) Even though it is technically still winter, there were a few RV campers in the Park camp ground but we did not see anyone else on the trail with us.

After setting up camp at Dosewallips SP, we hiked the Maple Valley Loop. Although there were a few muddy sections today, there were fewer because of the trail work done by WTA in November. THANK YOU! The lush green of the forest floor, the moss and ferns on the trees, the many nice bridges across Phantom Creek make this a very pleasant hike!