Lord Hill Regional Park — Friday, Jan. 4, 2013

Puget Sound and Islands > Seattle-Tacoma Area

This park is a great winter getaway when the mountains are full of low elevation snow as they are right now. There are many miles of trails both official and unofficial to be found in the confines of Lord Hill Park. This was my fourth trip to this place just SE of Snohomish but the first time I had people come with me. In this case my hiking partner entering her third season with me and her daughter who was out on her third trip with us. We arrived around 9:30 but there were a few cars ahead of us when we got there. When we were done the north lot we parked in was nearly full. Inside the park though we only saw a handful of trail joggers and hikers using the massive trail system and no horses today although there was plenty of evidence of them in places. Inside the park there were plenty of places with standing water and mud but nothing impassable. Just be prepared for winter conditions and wear boots if you don't want your shoes getting dirty. Our journey headed downhill to the main trail where we then headed toward Beaver Pond. Once at the Beaver Pond we ended up on one of the unofficial trails on the east side of Beaver Pond before eventually seeing signs for Red Barn that we never found. Heading in a general south direction we eventually found ourselves on the south end of the Temple Pond Loop where we took a break before carrying on. We came out on the Pipe Line trail and turned south again to head toward the river. We took the spur to drop down on the Snohomish River where we took another break before climbing back out and taking the Main Trail back to the parks north entrance. We spent about 3 hours in the park and figure we covered more than 5 miles with lots of moss covered trees and tranquil bodies of water to be seen along the way.