Easy walking though a little climb uphill from the lighthouse.

The second stop on our adventure today was to pay tribute to Oscar, The Bird King. We've seen five of the six pnw Dambo trolls and Oscar is easily my favorite! After spending some time with Oscar, we hiked down the short shady trail to the lighthouse. (Lighthouse is currently only open for a few hours on Sundays.) There is a small beach you can explore before hiking back up.

The parking near the lighthouse is restricted to handicap only. The only non-handicap option is the upper parking area by Oscar. The upper lot and the lighthouse have porta potties and garbage cans.

I am hiking all this month to raise funds and awareness for WTA so that the trails can be enjoyed by future generations. If you would like to contribute, any amount helps.
give.wta.org/jenchilada2025

#hikeathon #makeyourmilescount #teamtacosformiles #hikeathon2025 #trailsnextdoor #urbantrails

We had a great spring hike exploring Maury Island Marine Park today. It was 48 degrees with light rain falling. The visitor parking area was half filled with a local fire crew wrapping up rescue practice drills when we pulled in just before 10:30. Then and a porta pottie truck headed down hill to clean the 2 porta potties down in the camping area. We had a 5+ mile hike combining Long Beach walks up and down the beach plus heading uphill on the switchback trails to the overlook platform. Spring flowers were showing everywhere; we saw Oregon grape, red current, oso berry, bird cherry and plum. The hillside was alive with bird activity- we saw robins, blue jays, hummingbird, Downey woodpecker , chickadees and hawks. Trails on the hillside trails were saturated soils with a a couple muddy, slick spots. The main crushed gravel path was clear of obstacles and well drained. We walked back on surface streets from the viewing area to the visitor parking area. To finish off a great day we drove over to Point Robinson Park to visit Oscar the Bird King Troll. Another fantastic day out in nature with friends!

We started at Point Robinson Park with a visit to the troll. Love these sculptures! There were quite a few families with kids and dogs. We went down to the lighthouse then for a long walk down the beach where it was less crowded. You could play the rainbow game here and easily find rocks with every color of the rainbow.
Our next stop was the Sandpiper Cafe for lunch at the golf club, then on to Maury Island Natural Area for a hike along the bluff. There is supposed to be poison oak here but we didn’t see it. I did spot some fresh baby nettles, indicating spring is in the way!
There are some signs warning you to stay in designated trails. Apparently the soil is contaminated with arsenic and lead from the smelter plume in Tacoma.
Lovely day on a lovely island with lovely views and lovely weather.

Today we took our son, Dave who is visiting from the Boston area, to Point Robinson to view Oscar The Bird King who is easily viewed from a short trail from the upper parking area. We then hiked a slightly muddy trail down to  Point Robinson Lighthouse Park returning to the parking lot on the road. I included 2 links below with information on Point Robinson Park and Oscar the Bird King.