Swauk Forest Discovery Trail — Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024

I was wanting to go see yellow larches and after reading a number of reports on the Swauk Forest Discovery Trail, Ethan, Karen, Brenda, Jonah, & I decided to go see for ourselves.  There were only a couple of cars in at the trailhead when we arrived about 10:15.  The outhouse did not have any TP, but was not as bad as I had expected from previous reports.  Someone appears to have cleaned it out some and hung up some deodorizers - thanks.  We walked the trail counter-clockwise.  The north leg of the loop was mostly in the trees with few larches, but came to a nice viewpoint where the trail curved south.  From here on there were nice views of Diamond Head and hillsides of yellow larches.  We continued across Rd 9712 to the bench on Pt 4546 for lunch where we had great views of Mt Rainier to the south, the Teanaways & Stuarts to the west, and Diamond Head towering above us to the north.  We stayed for a little over an hour and more and more hikers showed up as we ate.  Afterwards, we completed the loop back to the car.  The larches were very nice and, as many of them still had some green, will probably be good for at least another week or so.