If you want excellent views, a fascinating trail network, beaver ponds with live beavers, and choices between gently rolling trails, moderate root scrambles, rock climbs and caves, try Oyster Dome and the Bat Caves. Accessible from either Chuckanut Drive or Blanchard Mountain Road, one can hike part of the Pacific Northwest Trail, and then link to the Oyster Dome Trail. Huff-puffing upwards, our trail ascends through towering cedar, flowering currant, Oregon grape, sword fern, gray rock, and refreshing streams and waterfalls. A well-marked side trail leads to the Bat Caves. We ate our lunch on a huge boulder to the calls of spelunkers below and rock climbers above. Fear not, we saw no bats. We headed for the top of Oyster Dome before rains moved in, leaving the caves for another day. Breaking out of the dark woods onto the open cliff top, bright afternoon sun greeted us, turning muddy murk into golden glory. The fantastic view included the Olympics, Skagit Valley, Whidbey Island, Anacortes, oyster beds, Samish Island, the San Juans, Lummi Island and snow clad Canadian peaks. With all that sparkling water to gaze upon, and toasting ourselves in afternoon sun, we did not want to leave. On advice, we followed Lily Lake and “Mac's Short Cut” trails for a fine loop that brought us back around to Blanchard Road and our car. Along the way, we discovered a beaver dam and pond where energetic beavers have exuberantly chewed a stand of stout alders. Croaking bullfrogs added to the peaceful scene and aromatic skunk cabbages bloomed bright yellow all around. Thanks to all the wonderful folks who built this great trail system. A total of 4.5 hours and about four to five miles were well worth the effort. The few we met on this hike had happy faces.

Well it was a gorgeous day and we were camping over at Larrabee St. Park and decided to do some hiking in the area. Oyster Dome had great views, but there were too many people, so we continued onto Lily Lake(a swamp), and then headed around the ""Loop"" trail and ended up going up to the North Butte. We climbed up the rocks and caught some incredible views of Mt. Baker. Jacqui and her new toy, a Canon DC, had a wonderful time taking pictures!!!

Oyster Dome - Trail Report The Dome is a flat open slab of rock at the top of Blanchard Mtn. with views to the west of the San Juan Islands, Anacortes and the Olympic mountains. To get to the Dome you climb a sometimes steep trail up to the 2050 ft. summit. This trail starts at an elevation of only 150 ft. on hiway 11 a few miles south of Bellingham where the North Cascades spread all the way west to Puget Sound. Since this summit is so low it's an excellent early season hike. Often snow free by the end of March. My group of 10 Mountaineers were enthusiastic as we started up at 9:30. Temperature was in the mid 50's with a 4 or 5 thousand foot overcast that we hoped would burn off by noon and there was no wind. There are several trail junctions (mostly with signs) a couple of streams to cross (easy) and a bunch of big muddy sections (but the mud was all dried up!) before the summit . The tread of this trail is mostly good to execellent but it has poor sections which are steep, rocky/rooty , straight up where switchbacks are needed, etc. Arriving at the Dome we had it to ourselves for an extended lunch and nap session! No one else on the trail all morning. The clouds did thin and break up and we needed sunscreen. The view expanded to about 20 miles by the time we started descending. Next up were the Bat Caves, also known as Talus Caves 350 feet below the Dome at the base of a vertical rock wall straight down from the Dome. No bats but big caves formed from giant rock fall off of the cliffs. The caves were the trip highlight for some of my group. For wildlife we only saw ravens soaring below the cliffs, but the flowers were better than I expected for low elevation deep forest: honeysuckle, columbine, false solomons seal, bleeding heart, wild rose, stream violet, and indian pipe. After stopping at all the view points again on the way down we returned to our cars at almost sea level by 3:30. Oyster Dome trail is on DNR land and is built and maintained by volunteers of the Pacific Northwest Trail Assoc. Not on any Green Trails map but featured in the Hiking Whatcom County guidebook. The trailhead is very hard to spot, just a tiny sign on a tree opposite a wide spot in the hiway. The PNT web site www.pnt.org has good maps that you can print but the trailhead information is skimpy. About 8 miles and 1900 ft. elevation gain. Robert Michelson 6-15-02

Needing an inspirational environment in which to try to finish a newspaper article I was writing, I decided that sitting on top of Oyster Dome typing away on a keyboard would do the trick. The road approaching the start of the trail (Chuckanut Drive - Highway 11) has signs all along it warning that the road is closed, but it is open at least as far as the trailhead at Oyster Creek. What a gorgeous day! The trail is in great condition - thanks to the local Pacific Northwest Trail Association that has recently done maintenance on it. And the views of Samish Bay are just awesome! Its been almost 2 years since I've been up on these mountains and it is a true mutli-use area. Though this was a weekday, there were mountain bikers, hang gliders, horseback riders, mountain joggers and rock climbers populating the network of trails in addition to a few of us hikers. I sat on top of the dome and did my work, while two of the rock climbers were working their way up the gigantic chair I was sitting on. No snow anywhere, Lily Lake is close to dry, no runoff on the trail to speak of and gorgeous blue skies. . . but no solitude.

When I got up Saturday morning, it was raining, so I decided to head north for better weather. I had been up to the Oyster Dome a couple of times from the west trail head on Highway 11. This time I thought coming from the east would be a good choice to see some new country. In the book, ""Winter Hikes"", it gives descriptions of hikes in the Chuckanut Mountains. The DNR has several trail heads on Blanchard Hill to pick from to start your hike. And the weather was good. I used the Incline Trail off the B-1000 road, but went up the Incline Alt. Trail which is much less steep. The Incline Trail was built as a logging railroad incline 3/4 of a mile long in 1920, with a maximum grade of 38 percent by the Sammish Bay Logging Company to reach the timber in the shortest possible route. It was called the Lizard Lake incline. Once at the top of the incline I hiked the old railroad grade trail to the junction with the Lizard Lake Trail. There was about a foot of old snow on the ground, but it was packed down from other hikers. I hike over to the lake which has several DNR campsites and a privy. I continued on past three other trail junctions to the end of the old railroad grade. This is where the PNT comes up from Highway 11 and where the trail to the Oyster Dome heads north. After getting up to the Dome it was time for lunch and the views out to the San Juans and the Bat Caves down below. I didn't stay to long as the wind was blowing (I think it always does up on top). I did meet several other hikers, three horse rider and two mtn. bikers. If you would like to see a photo of the incline and learn some history of the area, check out the book, ""Logging Railroads of Skagit County"" by Dennis Thompson.