great hike with some visitors from out of town. lots of people on the trail but not a problem. unpaved road going up is manageable but you'll need a car wash afterwards. bugs are fine as long as you don't stop.

Slept in and got a late start on the morning - arrived at the trailhead around 10:15am. The rough was a bit rough driving up but only a couple of deep potholes, was fine for the most part and the road is fairly wide which allows vehicles to pass easily.

A fairly crowded Saturday on the trail. Lots of friendly faces and perfect weather for a start-of-Summer hike.

Would rate squarely as a moderate - some steeper switchbacks evened out by some wider ares of gradual inclines.  This was a very relaxing hike with some cool views at the top.

Our dog loved the hike too!

Started around 8am, trail pretty well maintained with a bit of mud. Little detour to Lily lake after the dome was low traffic and a nice reprieve from the stream of people coming up on the way down. The Lily lake trail was pretty muddy but manageable. Just watch your way driving to the trailhead, people are dumb and don’t like to move out of the way with their cars. 

I started at the Samish overlook and went to Lily Lake, then Lizard lake, then North Butte and then Oyster Dome. This made the descent steeper than the ascent, which in retrospect, I should have avoided. It's better to start at Oyster Dome and do the other points after that. The whole loop was 9 miles and 1400 ft on Alltrails.

There were lots of wildflowers - I saw purslane, Columbine, false lily-of-the-valley and a few others. 

Trail is well-maintained. It's a popular trail- there were 8 cars when i arrived at 10 am and the parking lot was overflowing when I left at 2 pm.

Trail sequence: Samish Overlook to Larry Reed - Max's Shortcut- Lily Lake -Lizard Lake- Lizard-Lily Connector - North Butte -Lily Lake - Oyster Lily - Oyster Dome - Samish Bay to Samish Overlook

This lollipop loop makes a great day hike through the Blanchard Forest Block south of Bellingham.  It begins and ends with gorgeous views over the Salish Sea and Skagit Delta from the Samish Overlook.  The hike starts with a long uphill through lovely second-growth forest.  It then levels out and passes both Lizard and Lily Lakes with good picnic/camping sites.  After the lake views, it goes up to the lovely viewpoint on North Butte with views north to the BC mountains, east to Mount Baker and west to the Olympic Mountains.  The final leg goes from North Butte to Oyster Dome with its gorgeous views over Samish Bay and the Salish Sea.   From Oyster Dome it is a straight hike back through the forest to the Samish Overlook.  The full hike is about 8.5 miles with about 1600 ft of elevation gain along the way.

All the trail sections were in great shape with only a few slightly muddy sections.  The roughest sections are the Lizard-Lily Connector and North Butte trails, which are steeper, narrower and rockier than the other sections.  However, even these sections pose no significant challenges. 

Forest wildflowers were blooming in abundance, especially along the Larry Reid trail.  We noted lots of buttercups, lilies-of-the-valley, star flowers, foam flowers, bunchberries, blackberries, thimbleberries, and even a few columbines. 

We were expecting spring flies but had no problems with them, even when we lingered along the shorelines of Lily and Lizard Lakes. 

One of the highlights of our day was seeing the ultra-low tide in Samish Bay (see photo).   The tide was -2.5 ft shortly after noon, just when we were enjoying the views from Oyster Dome.  We had never seen the mudflats so exposed.  Most of the commercial oyster beds were high and dry. 

Overall, this was a lovely late-spring hike, with great trails, nice views and lots of variety to keep things interesting.