Beacon Rock State Park - Hamilton Mountain — Saturday, Apr. 10, 2021

We arrived at the trailhead at 10:00 on a Friday to an almost full parking lot - probably 5 spaces left out of 30 (?).  Coming from Olympia it was nice to see that the 120 or so miles south of me led to some flowers and trees being further along in their spring time show than I've seen around here.  We saw many violets, trillium, spring beauties, and twin flower; the highlight was a Calypso Orchid right off the trail.  The waterfall is really flowing with a lot of water right now; be careful around the viewing area as it was very slippery.  We continued on up; views were spectacular on this sunny day.  We reached the summit after several switchbacks and more good views.  Not wanting to come back down the very steep, rocky, scrambly sections of the trail we decided to come back down the loop and enjoyed lunch and the views at a rocky ledge marked by a pole.  Walking back down via the loop is very nice and gradual on a combination of old road and good trail.  We had 3 or 4 downed trees to cross along this section - none of them difficult.  Make sure you have a map or know your intended destination as there are 3 or 4 intersections that are signed, but if you don't have a picture of the route in your head or on a map it would be easy to get off on the wrong trail.