Seabury Blair Jr. - The Creaky Knees Guide Pacific Northwest National Parks and Monuments: The 75 Best Easy Hikes

Copyright 2016 by Seabury Blair Jr.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by Sasquatch Books

Editors: Gary Luke and Christy Cox
Production editor: Emma Reh
Interior maps: Marlene Blair
Copyeditor: Kristin Vorce Duran

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-63217-011-8
eBook ISBN: 978-1-63217-012-5

Sasquatch Books
1904 Third Avenue, Suite 710
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 467-4300
www.sasquatchbooks.com

PHOTO CREDITS:

, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

, CC BY 2.0

, CC BY-SA 2.0

, CC BY 2.0

: Courtesy of Marlene Blair

, CC BY 2.0

All other photos: Courtesy of Seabury Blair, Jr.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please use common sense. No guidebook can act as a substitute for experience, careful planning, the right equipment, and appropriate training. There is inherent danger in all the activities described in this book, and readers must assume full responsibility for their own actions and safety. Changing or unfavorable conditions in weather, roads, trails, snow, waterways, and so forth cannot be anticipated by the author or publisher, but should be considered by any outdoor participants. The author and publisher will not be responsible for the safety of users of this guide.

Given the potential for changes to hiking rules and regulations post-publication, please check ahead for updates on contact information, parking passes, and camping permits.

v3.1

This guide is dedicated to all the workers and volunteers who make certain our national parks and monuments will always be the treasures they are

This is the first of my half dozen guidebooks that my wife, Marlene, has accompanied me on every hike that follows. See, until her retirement a couple of years ago, she who I call B. B. Hardbody actually had to work for a living. Now her only task is to prod and poke me with her trekking pole to get me along the trail before I seize up and freeze mid-stride, like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. That, and to produce all of the maps for this book, furnish good photos when mine sucked, keep me committed to a hiking schedule when the weather was less than fine, and put up with my continual grousing and groaning. I could thank her a thousand times, but it would not be enough.

Friends old and new continue to support and encourage me as, in my seventh decade of walking Northwest trails, I bitch and moan about how pathways have gotten longer and steeper. Chief among them are Jim Drannan, the Gnarly Dude, and Ron C. Judd. Im grateful to Joe Weigel, who knows Olympic National Park trails better than me, and his wife, Kathy.

Thanks, too, to the National Park and National Forest staffers who reviewed my work and made certain I didnt miss a critical trail junction or send you marching off a cliff. They included Cristina Rose Peterson, lead ranger, Newberry National Volcanic Monument; Denise M. Shultz, chief of interpretation and education, North Cascades National Park Service Complex; Jeff Axel, chief of interpretation and visitor services, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument; Petrina Crow Vecchio, volunteer coordinator, VIP Program, Mount Rainier National Park; and Kathy Steichen, chief of interpretation, Education and Volunteers, Olympic National Park.

My editors at Sasquatch BooksChristy Cox, Emma Reh, and Em Galecaught my really stupid mistakes as well as all of my really smart mistakes. They deserve more than thanks.

Finally, I would like to thank the waiter at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop, Washington, who found my REI credit card and reported it. Some idiotI am not saying wholeft it on the table after (several) post-hike beers.

Way back in 1972, I took a picture of the sunset from a beach at Kalaloch in Olympic National Park. Yes, there were cameras back then. You loaded them with stuff called film, which you had to develop in a room that was very dark. It is possibly one reason that photographers disliked daylight, like vampires.

Anyway, I was surprised to see my picture the other day in a newspaper that was only a day or two old. Upon closer examination, I determined that it wasnt my photograph at all, but an image taken from the same spot, showing the same old tree gnarled by Pacific winds, and the same creek curving into the ocean. It was as if, in that spot, time stood still.

Time indeed stands still in all the places youll find in this book, at least as still as Mother Nature allows. Our national parks and monuments are tasked with preserving and conserving the forests, mountains, beaches, and rivers in their charge for future generations. Your children and your childrens children will be able to find the same vistas in the same condition you left them years ago. Mother Nature may move a tree or two, orin at least one case in our lifetimeblow up a mountain. But for the most part, American parks and monuments will continue to look the same.

The people who manage these sacred places in Oregon and Washington may work for various agencies, like the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture. But they share the same goal when it comes to national parks and monuments, even though they may work in different ways to achieve it. They also share the same bossa discerning and tough taskmaster who demands a paradox: to provide for the enjoyment of the people yet at the same time conserve and preserve for future generations.

Who sets such a seemingly impossible mission? The owners of these wonderful, timeless places, thats who. And who is that?

Why, its you.

The beginning of each trail description is intended to give quick information that can help you decide whether the specific day hike is one that interests you. Heres what youll find: