Millersylvania State Park -My favorite state park in the state 3-29-09 I have been coming to this park for 30 years, god I’m getting old. My father introduced me to this jem as a child and I keep coming back. I’ve brought family, friends, boyfriends, everyone that is close to me to this place. I have wonderful memories here. Today is no different. I was having a bit of a rough morning and this was the first place I thought of. It was a great sunny day and perfect hike in the woods, just what I needed. I set out in tennis shoes, no pack, not even water. This is totally not my norm but I feel so comfortable in this park and my way around that I didn’t feel I needed my boots and safety of pack and essentials today. I was only out for a couple of hours and there are lots of people around. Today I cruised around 80% of the trails and soon my troubles disappeared and I was remembering all the great times, I had growing up wandering the woods. I remember the freedom of exploring, the animals, trees, and the safety of my dad and his cooking when I returned to camp after a hard day of hiking the trails. I think this park was the beginning of my love for the trails. I didn’t officially take up hiking until I was an adult but this park definitely gave me a passion and love for the trails and the woods. There used to be a resort at Deep lake when I was a kid and we’d go get treats there, now it’s turned into an extended stay adult park. I also remember there used to be a dock out from the lake my dad carved my initials in but that is sadly gone too. If this park ever gets on a closure list I might have to start a riot! Here’s a little history from the park’s website: The park was originally called "Miller's Glade" by the Miller family, who once owned the property. The family later changed the name to "Millersylvania," meaning "wooded glade." The park's 842 acres were homesteaded by Squire Lathum in 1855 before being sold to John Miller. Miller's family gave the property to the state in 1921, stipulating that the land must forever be used as a park. Millersylvania's buildings were constructed in 1935 almost entirely by hand by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Relics of a narrow-gauge railroad, and several skid roads used in the 1800s by the logging industry, remain on park grounds. Stumps of trees still carry notch scars where springboards supported brawny loggers. If you have never stopped here, I suggest you add it to your list. There is a lake, wetlands and marsh land, awesome trails with boardwalks that are not slick, great bike trails, you can bring the dogs, tons of parking, wonderful old growth forest, well marked trails with maps, exercise trail, easy access from freeway. Good times! Today was my 20th hike of the year! 40 more to go!

Our group of 10 humans and 1 dog set out for a quick trip of about 5 miles along the many trails at Millersylvania State Park. I noticed new boardwalk installations across some of the muddy spots since last year. Most of the trails are in great shape. On the way home we stopped for lunch at the Olympia Farmers Market and got stuck in the massive Christmas motorcycle parade.

If you've ever done the long drive from Seattle to Portland, somewhere in the nether regions south of Olympia you've probably seen the signs on I-5 pointing to Millersylvania State Park. It is actually worth checking out. There is a sizeable lake with a swimming beach, and several miles of trails rambling through wetlands and forest. I enjoyed seeing the many impressive picnic shelters and other log structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. If our economy continues to tank, we may need a new version of the CCC...imagine what could be done with that for trails and parks! If you want to hike around the park, you may as well park at the lakeside lot right at the park entrance. Follow the shoreline path through the woods, then strike out on the somewhat muddy paths through the marshes. Some of the douglas firs are truly impressive in size. A walk in Millersylvania makes for a nice break when doing the Seattle-to-Portland slog. Freeway access is reasonably convenient...the park is about 3 miles east of I-5. Dear WTA: you need a new region covering southwest Washington. Technically Millersylvania Park is in the Willapa Hills.

You know things are bad when folks will drive 3 hours round trip for a 3 hour hike! 12 cabin-fevered club hikers showed up for a late-start walk along several of the trails at Millersylvania State Park. We started off at Deep Lake near the boat launch and did quick introductions, then tried to avoid the wettest parts of the trail by hugging the remote parts of the campground. (I am unaware of any precise maps of all the trails, but the Mountaineers' Washington State Parks guidebook gets pretty close.) We made good time to the Environmental Learning Center and the Loop Trail, and took several short breaks. The sun came out a few times. We saw a few trailrunners and several couples out walking dogs. The only native fauna we saw was a large frog sitting in the middle of the trail, oblivious to the fact that he almost got squashed under a boot! SInce everyone seemed to have different plans for the afternoon (Seahawks, Cabela's, Portland, etc.) we skipped the usual post-hike snack and went our separate ways.

On my way down to my sister's near Centralia for Christmas Eve dinner, I stopped by Millersylvania State Park for a quick hike. This one's been on my list for a while, and I'm actually glad to see it at it's worst, since I'm sure it will look better on repeat visits! The state parks website says that there are 8.6 miles of trails here -- I probably walked 5 of them. The trails are open to hikers and bikes, but I had the place to myself. The wide, nearly level paths are sometimes duff, sometimes gravel road, and sometimes narrow way trail. There's also a fitness trail loop at the NE corner of the park -- run 100 yards, stop and do exercise, run to next station, etc. With the recent windstorms, the whole place looked like a U-Cut Christmas tree farm on the 26th -- lots of broken boughs and branches. But, wow, what a great example of old growth forest! There are sections of the park that probably haven't seen a motorized vehicle or chainsaw in 80 years, back when the CCC was building stone bathhouses and picnic shelters along the shores of Deep Lake. Well worth a winter visit!

I wanted to get out in an area where I: 1) wouldn't have to worry about accidentally getting lined up for a shot by a hunter, and 2) wouldn't have to worry about ruining a hunter's day by making a ruckus in the woods. Heading to Rainier was tops on my list, but the 90 minute drive wasn't a turn-on for Heather. Instead we made it to this State Park about 15 minutes south of Olympia. It has about 8 miles of trails, but unless you want to zig-zag across the whole park and see a lot of the same stuff two or three times, you won't get 8 miles in. We walked a 4-mile loop on the perimiter of the park's trail network - about as long a walk as you'll get here. It was pretty nice - saw some joggers and other folks strolling. Not much on views, and we were near the road almost half of the time, but we got plenty of forest and foliage. There's a nice lake there with plenty of birds. We'd been meaning to go there for about 10 years - probably won't wait so long for the next trip.