Larrabee State Park

Our last days were spent at Larrabee State Park and while I wouldn't recommend this park during the summer unless you have reservations, we almost had the place to ourselves and loved it, even in the rain. 

Birch Bay State Park, Birch Bay, WA

This area was named by Vancouver when he passed the area in the 1700s and it was named after the huge number of paper birch trees located there. I am thinking it should have been named Big Leaf Maple as we saw much more of those than the paper birch. 

The State Park is noted for its birding as it's on the Pacific Flyway. We saw a number of species, but as it was pretty late in the year, not hundreds like we had hoped. The regulars were there though, gulls and loons, geese and ducks and we enjoyed just sitting on the logs and watching them watch us. 

The park as a Terrell Marsh Interpretive Trail that was about a mile long and we heard a woodpecker but couldn't see him/her in the canopy of trees

Tolt MacDonald County Park

Its funny, but since DH and I have retired we need to keep day-planners to keep up with all we have to do and to get time for travel has been difficult. Now, what we do is block off time a couple months ahead and hope that we can avoid meetings and appointments or gatherings.

Last week we got a whole 8 days for ourselves and when you live in Washington State, rain is always a possibility and we had some, but we also had some great weather. 

Our first stop was just south of the town of Carnation and a King County park that catered to RVs but more mountain bikers.  The trails were beautiful with the turning leaves and awesome views. The bridge was pedestrian only and about half way across you could feel the wind and the vibration, but it had such a beautiful view of the mountains, it didn't matter much. 

The little shed, laughingly called a cabin is for the Mountain Bikers who want to spend the night. The other option was yurts and they were much better, with real beds and heaters.