Brooks Memorial State Park — Wednesday, May. 27, 2020

We have been staying at home except for grocery store pick-ups and senior shopping so we were looking forward  to taking our first road trip today to do a little trail meandering! We had read about the mountain lady slippers being seen at Brooks Memorial SP so decided to see if we could find them. It was a long first trip of 3 1/2 hours, but it can be done on a tank of fuel. Restrooms were open at the BLM Recreation Areas in Yakima Canyon and the restroom at the state park was open and well-stocked with TP, sinks and hand sanitizer! There were no other hikers so social distancing was not a problem. Having a 7 hour driving time did not allow much time for hiking, but it was good to get outside somewhere other than our own backyard!

There are more than 9 miles of hiking and equestrian trails in the park and they are located across the HWY from the campground. We found a map of the park at the unoccupied ranger station, but it was very poorly marked telling only what was road, trail and private land! A map with trail names and length would be very helpful. The sign at each of the 2 TH's named several trails with arrows pointing directions, but there was no indication of the length of the trail. In searching online before we went I could not find detailed information only info from reviews of the CG from those who had hiked. Generally the trails are on old roads and wide and some will take you to meadows with wildflowers in the spring and views of Mt Adams, Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson on a clear day. We started on the Brooks Nature Trail and did the Lady Slipper Loop Trail where we did find several nice bouquets of lady slippers and several spotted coral root. We would like to have have done the trail to Picnic Meadow where we would hopefully have had views of the peaks and more flowers in the meadow, but we needed to head for home. There was some elevation on the Nature Trail, but not much on the Lady Slipper Loop which was trail rather than an old road. The trails went through a forest of Lodgepole Pine and Oregon White Oak. Lupine, death camas, pea flowers and balsamroot were also seen. The balsamroot was mainly past its prime and the lupine was just at prime. Hopefully next year at this time the campground will be open so we can spend the night and hike more of the trails!

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://parks.state.wa.us/482/Brooks-Memorial