Lord Hill Regional Park — Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011

Puget Sound and Islands > Seattle-Tacoma Area

Got there pretty late around 11:00. Nobody except a few cars were parked in the gravel parking lot. Coming here you have to drive up a very STEEP hill so make sure your car is equipped for that. The place was pretty nice. Horses were grazing, and there was a big bulletin board showing a map of Lord Hill. In other words, it seemed like a good hiking spot. The trailhead was very obvious ; and after about 0.4 miles we arrived with another map of the park and signs. If you take a left, then that is the Beaver Lake trail, which leads to the Pipeline trail. However, if you want to take a right, you continue onto the Main Trail to some other fun places. I decided to take a left - I was curious to see the beavers after all. After half a mile, you see a narrow road that goes downhill and another off to the right that says Pipeline trail. I took the narrow road but as I went down there, after crossing the bridge, I was hopelessly lost!!! There were 2 roads (I took the left one) and after a few minutes, it seemed to lead to nowhere. There was no lake in sight!!! I was so confused because there were no signs at all leading to Beaver Lake! I headed onto the Pipeline Trail after that... I was so disappointed! Again, that road seemed to lead to nowhere. There were lots of spiders and bugs though, lots of wildlife! The whole place seemed "marshy" and in spots it was wet but overall, it was alright for "the ideal hiker." :-) I headed back onto the Main Trail, pretty unsatisfied with this whole "no signs" and all and after seeing the map and where the two roads divide I continued straight, keeping to the Main Trail. It got steep for only 0.1 miles and then I took a left. After that, there were a lot of clumps of horse poop so I decided to quit trying to find my way around this park and go home. There wasn't a lot of stuff to see, but it was still a nice walk around the park. However, a very confusing walk... The signs don't help that much. I advise you to get a picture or something of the park before going so you will not be confused. I never found Beaver Lake today or anything like that! Overall, I would think that this place should be rated as 3 1/2 stars. I will most likely come back and visit this interesting (^_^) place again! Any comments would be appreciated, thank you!