Our group of four adults and two toddlers spent this sunny Sunday morning hiking through Lord Hill. When we left the trailhead at 9:15 a.m., there were only a few vehicles in the parking lot. We took the Main Trail to the Pipeline Cutoff, then went up to the 630' View Point, where we rested in the sunshine and took in the crystal clear view of Mount Rainier, and the Olympics. It took us 40 minutes to get here. We took the short loop around to return to the Pipeline Cutoff (enjoying a really nice open view of the Cascades en route), from where we took the Beaver Lake Trail loop back to the parking lot. This took about 1 hour. The trails are generally wide, and were mostly mud-free today except around down around the Beaver Lake area. There was some sort of trail race happening today so the parking lot was overflowing when we got back to our cars around 11:45. Couple of things to note: 1) I have to echo a previous hiker's comments about the official park map not being complete, since it doesn't have many of the shorter trails (just the main trails). 2) With that said, we liked having the park map, since signs for the trail intersections are absent in most cases. 3) Beaver Lake isn't really a lake, just a marsh as the hike description states, so adjust your expectations there (we do not think it is the most pretty area of the park).

We went with about 11 others and it was a bright sunny day.. The hike was very pretty

The trail at Lord Hill Regional Park is a 3.6 mile loop, but you can mix together several other trails and extend your hike. The trail was pretty muddy in some areas, but there wasn't really any standing water. The hike is easy enough to take kids on and offers many views of ponds and lakes. We did encounter several bicyclists on some of the side trails, but overall we didn't encounter too many people. Great nature hike!

I had never been to Lord Hill Park despite knowing about it for years (and even living within 15 minutes of it at one point). I thought it was more of an urban park, but this place is lush, remote, and wild. My aunt and I wandered over here on a Saturday afternoon expecting to take a leisurely 40 minute walk. We certainly didn't come prepared for a 2 hour hike in the woods (i.e. no water, no headlamp, no map, no compass... oops!). The park is beautiful! The hills are pretty gradual, so it's not a strenuous hike, but still more of a heart-pumper than taking a walk down the street. There are a ton of trails to explore, but be warned: many of them are poorly marked or not marked at all, which caused us a lot of confusion. That plus some poor map reading on our part resulted in a bizarre figure-8 hike we did along several of the trails in the northern half of the park. Thankfully there were friendly people who knew the park better than we did and pointed us in the right direction. We saw a good number of people for a Saturday afternoon, but the myriad of trails allows for them to be dispersed (unlike popular in & out hikes) and gave us many moments of solitude (maybe a few too many since we got so turned around!). There had been quite a bit of rain, so we encountered some very muddy patches, understandably. There were a good number of trail runners, and a handful of folks with dogs. The Pipeline Trail is the least interesting, but good for orienting you if you get lost! I'm hoping to head back here to do a bit of trail running before long, and to hike up to the View Point next time - it's a great place for folks north of Seattle that's much more accessible than the Cascades.

Another low elevation hike when the weather is sub par. Haven't been here before... A wild foragers wonderland! Meandered the Beaver Lake trail to Red Barn today. Trails are multi-use and in good condition. Muddy in places due to the rain, horses and mountain bikes. Will be back in the spring! ^_^