We expected a flat easy trail today but found plenty of challenges at Federation Forest. There are a lot of down trees on both sides of the highway. Most you can get over, under or around without too much trouble. In a couple of places it's hard to find a way around and back to the trail. Watch for red flagging to help guide you through the worst spots. There is a lot of water and mud to test your boots on.
It is a lush mossy forest. We saw skunk cabbage, trillium and a couple of other early bloomers. The highlight was the fun Hobbit Trail. From there we continued to the west end then crossed the highway and took that north trail back. It was a little worse than the other side but had some pretty spots.

As part of our plan to avoid areas where there might be hunters, we visited the fantastic and underused Federation Forest State Park off Highway 410, between Enumclaw and Greenwater. The park was officially closed for the season, no rangers around, and the interpretive center and restrooms were all locked up, but the forest is beautiful and the trails were in good shape for the most part, with some mud and some blowdowns. The trails were not well marked, the map on the web site did not name the trails or give distances, but we kept the river on one side and the highway on the other so we knew which way we were going. The forest, with (from the state park web site) “…600 acres of old growth Douglas firs, mature western hemlock, Sitka spruce and western red cedar trees…” had turned golden, autumn leaves all over the ground, gorgeous light coming in through the trees and the White River like molten silver. From the parking lot inside the park, we walked from one end of the park to the other, going south to north (or east to west), then crossed the highway and started back on the other side. The trail on that side had more obstructions, so we crossed again and finished on the first side. We found the troll! This park could use some TLC, some good trail signs and a good map!

Federation Forest is located just off Hwy 410 on the way to Greenwater. This was one of the parks slated for closure on June 30 by Washington State due to the budget shortfall. So we planned a farewell hiking excursion. Just 2 days before our hike we learned that the park would now remain open, due to the Discover Pass which recently passed and will be put into effect this summer. So our mission changed to a celebration hike.
Ranger Eric Lewis (who has run this park for years) led us on a ½ mile interpretive trail hike to start our day. He called it “the contemplative trail” and at many points we stopped to use our senses and experience the old growth forest with its background music of the White River. The trillium were in full bloom and sprang from a step moss carpet, only recently devoid of snowpack. We were curious about the “hobbit house” which is featured on their gift shop items. He pointed us to the trail there, however mentioned it would be muddy and challenging in places, due to no staff to maintain and remove the blow downs. Eric himself will be giving up his job due to the reduced funding, which made us very sad thinking of all the years he has led children and adults through these trails and stewarded this special place.
The “hobbit trail” is a part of the old Naches trail which was used way back by covered wagons going from Yakima over Naches Pass and on into Enumclaw. Even as a feature of Federation Forest, the trail soon showed how lack of maintenance allows our trails to be reclaimed by the forest. Most bridges and boardwalks were still in place, however numerous blowdowns forced us to reroute or get down on our bellies and slide under them. It’s not like you can just step over an old growth blowdown! After about a mile, and an hour of hiking, we arrived at the “Hobbit house.”
Neither of us had really known what to expect, except maybe something resembling the t-shirt images. Certainly not what we found! We were surrounded by hobbits (yard gnomes) in their own little village. There were doors to different houses, external structures, gardens, hammocks, a clothes line, a mail box and many, many treasures left by this quirky little civilization. We had lunch with them, took some photos, then headed back towards the interpretive center. We had discussed going back on the trail which goes on the other side of 410, however there have been some slides and some of the areas we were told were a bit difficult to negotiate. But there were lots of other trails between the highway and the river, so we covered some new ground on our way back to the car. We saw only a handful of other hikers there, and they stayed on the gravel paths. The “hobbit house” is only for the adventurous.