Larrabee State Park - Chuckanut Ridge Trail — Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016

Puget Sound and Islands > Bellingham Area

All by my lonesome today, I decided on a short drive and rollicking trail. This route starts out easy at the North Chuckanut parking area (no fee). The trail is posh to the junction at about 2.2 miles with the Chuckanut Ridge trail. This too, is fine trail at the start with nice sandstone overlooks to Mt. Baker and Canadian Peaks. However, once past a half mile or so, the trail gets a bit temperamental and fun with some skimpy trail and abrupt drop offs. It then pretty much meanders the ridge finally ending at the Cleator Road viewpoint and parking lot. Here one can either take the Rock Trail down to the Lost Lake trail and back to the trailhead for a loop (a map is helpful here) or back the way I came. I opted to return by the same route which is actually more of a work out since even though the ridge trail is a little shorter, it's much tougher with rugged trail and lots of ups and downs. Besides, it's very lonesome. I saw one party on the way up and absolutely no one on the way down. Of course, that might be because everyone was watching the Super Bowl.