Having no plans today but needing to get out, we set out to visit a park over in Kirkland that we had yet to visit. Crestwoods is a park that contains, baseball fields, soccer fields, playgrounds and some hiking trails. We hiked the trails down to the railroad tracks and then walked along the path alongside the rails for a bit before returning to the main entrance of the park. (I believe there were plans to convert these railroad tracks to trail at some point but not sure when). We also took a side trail down to Cotton Hill Park which is in the process of being restored. Just a short little trail here.
Being that we were on the eastside of Lake Washington and had the whole afternoon ahead of us, I decided to check out Soaring Eagle Park in Sammamish. On the drive over I saw the sign to Evans Creek Preserve and made a stop there first. This was quite a lovely little park with ADA accessible trails as well as a nice little path through the woods. The trails are in excellent condition. Butterflies and birds flitting around through the meadow. There supposedly is a gnome hidden within the park and if you find it you are allowed to move it to another area of the park (but do not remove it from the park)like a little gnome-cache. I did not see it today.
After completing a loop of Evans Preserve, we once again headed off for Soaring Eagle Park. We parked at the E Main Dr (main) Trailhead and set off down the pipeline trail. This is a wide, gravel path which looks like to cuts through the center of this park. There were maps at the junctions and the posts were marked with the number corresponding to the junction of the map. So even though I did not have a map I never felt like I would get too lost. We met some mountain bikers, otherwise it was a pretty solitary hike. Trails were in surprisingly good condition, with very few muddy areas seeing as horses and mountain bikes use these trails as well as hikers.
We spent about an hour exploring the trails but only experienced a small portion of the park. Having left the house when it was cool and drizzly I had come out a little overdressed and under prepared for a full day of exploring, so had to head home and leave the rest for another day.
We saw many new places today and were never more than 45 minutes from home.
We did find the Tohula Rock if anybody knows what that means.

First time walking around Soaring Eagle for me - lots of nice lowland forest. The west half of the park is nearly all big leaf maple, the east half more traditional mix with more conifer. Many trails going every which way - but they are well marked with a numbered way point system, (it works great - nice idea.) Not a whole lot to see, (no views, no water, etc), but if you are jonesing for a 'forest fix' or need a place to go trail running this is a nice place. There is an interesting 'ditch' that runs basically east/west through the middle of the park that looks like it much have been part of the original logging activity up there, (water source? sleuceway?)

The parking lot is relatively easy to find if you take NE 8th east from 228th (just north of the Safeways), go right at the first traffic circle onto 244th, left at the next traffic circle onto E Main then go until you run straight into the parking lot.

Soaring Eagle is a park hidden on the Sammamish Plateau but well worth the effort to get there and walk. The Park is hidden in suburban developments and was difficult to find for us (thank ST. Steve and his I-Phone) but we did make it without to many problems once I talked with Siri.

The park is a wooded area with no real views but lots of solitude and a fair amount of mud in some sections. Our group hiked the part perimeter including the Double D, Sleigh Ride, Northwest Passage, Blue Jay Way (this trail has some nasty mud hole sections near the 'swamp', Devils Slide, Lighting, Bear Way, Creek Bed, Camino Espinosa and Pipeline Trails.

The trip was about 5.5 miles in total and enjoyable for the most part. No real rain fell during our walk. The map I downloaded shows numbers at trail junctions. These numbers relate to posts which show directions to other posts on the trail system. These are very helpful in finding your way around. I was completely turned around at several junctions and was happy for arrows pointing the correct direction.

This is a good hike for early in the season or fall when the maples would be in full color. Lots of fairly level hiking, but do get a map of the roads in the area if you are not familiar with Sammamish (like me).

This park is accessible from East Main Drive in Sammamish and is found very easily. Today we were able to spot it by the number of people WALKING there to hike. How nice it must be to have this great hiking spot right in your backyard!

My son and I took a variety of trails today and hiked about 3 miles. In all, we hiked on the Sleigh Ride, Do Loop, and Horse Trails, as well as Katie Lane and Camino Espinoza. All of the trails are in great shape with the exception of a little mud and water on the trail in some places. The only elevation change on the trails we hiked today was on the Camino Espinoza trail, which leads to a small pond in the northwest corner of the park and is moderately steep when returning from the pond. The other trails were mainly flat with very moderate ups and downs. All of the trails are well signed with numbered trail markers. Still, I would bring a copy of a map with you when you go. Here is a link from the King County Parks website: http://your.kingcounty.gov/[…]/BCT_SoaringEagle_brochure.pdf

We will be back to explore other parts of this park. The route we took today was enough to leave us wishing we had more time to spend here. I highly recommend this hike for those with young children that want to spend some time in the woods without going too far. You will most likely be sharing the trails with mountsin bikers as well. We saw more mountain bikers then hikers today.