Oyster Dome — Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2004

Puget Sound and Islands > Bellingham Area

We started by the Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive and completed a lollipop loop hiking up the PNT to the Lily Lake Campground and back to the PNT on the Sarnish Connection. Beware of the 2 mile 60 mph speedzone just before the Chuckanut exit. The hike up the PNT offered stellar views up to an overlook, which unfortunately was a bit trashy. There were some old, rotting recliners and fire pits up there. Continuing up the PNT was a nice forested walk and very well marked by a plethora of PNT signs. Lily Lake seemed to be more of a beaver pond with plenty of beaver activity evidence including freshly felled trees. In fact the first bit of the Sarnish Connection seemed to be rerouted a little higher to avoid rising water. The view from the top of the dome was nice and we got to see a pair of bald eagles, some other large birds of prey, and a rock climber. Hiking down the Sarnish Connection was steep in places. We stopped off to play in the boulder field and bat caves which I'm not sure we found. There were jumbles of rocks we poked our head into, but we never found a system to climb into. The rocks were very slippery in places and covered in moss. Hike down from there was short and we passed a number of hikers coming up late in the day. I'm guessing this hike gets packed on a weekend. We did see 3 blooming trilium and tons of those yellow flowers that I think are skunk cabbage. I guy we met who may have been one his own kind of mushrooms claimed he was hunting for morells.