A beautiful sunny day to check out this hidden gem of a park along the Skagit River with a friend. We got a little lost on the way in so be sure to bring directions or your smart phone to find the place. There are no signs along Hwy. 20 for the park but the turn off is just west of Concrete, forgive me for not remembering the road name. The park is set in some typical Western Washington forest along the river with lots of moss, river bank exploring and mountain views. All the trails were in great shape with very little mud but I'm sure that changes on rainy days.

The park was fairly quiet when we arrived. One car leaving and another there with an older couple we met soon after hitting the trail. Not unexpected for a Monday morning. We followed the hiking trail down to the river from the day use area. There is a short spur that runs west along the river before coming to a private property line. We did the spur and headed back east to enjoy a long stretch of trail along the river. There were several spots to walk along sandy and later rocky beaches along with mountain views complete with low fresh snow. We spotted fish fry in the river and saw a bald eagle roosting in a tree. Once we left the river portion of the trail we heard woodpeckers on the far side of the large field at the east end of the park. We continued on and walked a couple of the campground loops before doing another section of trail in the trees before heading back to my truck.

This is a great place to go if you want to get out and not play in the snow like us today. This would also be good for beginners and kids. My friend and I kept a leisurely pace today but figure we walked 2 1/2 3 miles on easy grade.

   I wasn't sure of the weather conditions today so I quickly headed out to some low level hiking at Rasar State Park near Concrete, Washington. This is a newer state park that you won't find on Google Earth but it is well maintained. The trail system is about 3.5 miles in length with no significat elevation gain of any sort. A 4000' section of the Skagit River Loop Trail is along the riverfront of the Skagit River with the snowcapped Iron Mountain in the background. This park is well known for Bald Eagles feeding on carcases of the Salmon during their spawning season on the Skagit. The Eagles are best seen between November and early February each year but I admit I did not see any here today. There is very good access to the Skagit River if you would like fishing from the bank. If I compared this hike to the Old Sauk River Trail, I would prefer this more as you have better views and easier access to the river. This would be a great park to bring the kids in the summer. I was alone at this park on hike number 6 this year and being the off season it was nice having it to myself. It was a place to check out along The Scenic Cascade Loop Highway. Checkout the video of this hike and over 140 other hikes I have done in Washington State on my youtube channel at "lmm3181" or click on this direct link for this hike. http://www.youtube.com/watc[…]mp;index=1&feature=plcp

As Always enjoy your hiking and get out and see this beautiful state.
Take Care!
Mike

We had stayed at the CG Friday and Saturday nights so hiked the Skagit View and Meadow Trails before returning home. The park has about 3.5 miles of easy trails to explore. The campground is very nice and family friendly and I'm sure very busy in the summer. The individual sites are large. Only the host and 3 other sites were taken in our loop so it was a very quiet CG. There were several varieties of fungus and some big cedars to be seen along the river trail. The park seems to be a popular area for locals to walk their dogs. We saw several golden eye and an American dipper on the river. On a clear day one can see Sauk Mountain and other North Cascade Peaks from the meadow.

We lucked out with the weather again and had nice weather for our weekly hike! We got sprinkled on for a about 2 minutes while we ate lunch...but other than that it was partly cloudy - partly sunny. Enjoy beautiful views of the river, mountains and meadows. Nice flat easy to walk trails. Some of the trail is an ADA trail and is paved.....the other parts are grass, gravel or dirt.


I really wanted to check out Rasar State Park to see if it was some place that I might want to camp at in the future. I think it would be a great place to camp for a weekend. It is a really pretty park and has about 3.5 miles of really nice trails as well.

We had fun making some cairns on one of the river banks ~ this kept my kids busy for about 45 minutes.... :)

Check out my blog post for the full report:

http://ahomeschoolmomshikin[…]k-trails-may-26th-2011.html

We had camped in the park in our trailer Friday and Saturday nights. Temperatures were in the low 30's at night and high 30's during the day. After setting up camp on Friday, we drove along the Skagit River looking for eagles and saw a total of 70. The most fun group were 4 feeding across the river about 2 miles from Marblemount heading toward Newhalem. One eagle flew away with a fish in its talons! Saturday we hiked the Thunder Creek Trail. Today we hiked a 2 mile loop in the park starting from the CG. This loop takes you to the Skagit River where we turned right for 1/3 mile to the park boundary. Here we retraced our steps and followed the river to a large field where elk are sometimes seen. Sauk Mt. was seen in the distance. Wildlife seen--one eagle and 2 Golden eye! This is a very beautiful CG and I'm sure a very crowded one in the summer! However, we were the only ones in our loop other than the host.