Hi, I'm Eric.

I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

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37
Brooks Memorial State Park
37

Brooks Memorial State Park

north of Goldendale, Washington
visited 22 May 2021
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Brooks Memorial State Park offers a chance for a hike in the woods or a game of disc golf. If you get deep enough into the woods, you are rewarded with some panoramic views of Mount Hood.

Let’s start with the short trail loop near the campground.

A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through a lush green forest, crossing a muddy boggy section on a row of round log rounds placed as stepping stones. Dense undergrowth and grasses flank the path, with tall pine and deciduous trees rising in the background.
A dirt hiking trail winds through a lush green forest past the thick, deeply furrowed trunk of a large fir tree, with a wooden sign reading “BIG FIR TREE 53 IN. DIA” and an arrow pointing left among the surrounding undergrowth.
Just like it says, a big fir tree!

This loop allows you to a explore a sparse forest with wildflowers. In the spring the textures and colors are on full display.

A close-up of a thick pine tree trunk with scaly gray and reddish-brown bark dotted with tufts of bright yellow-green wolf lichen. Behind it, a sunlit forest of evergreen trees and green grassy ground recedes into the background.
A dirt hiking trail winds up a gentle grassy slope through an open ponderosa pine forest, with thick reddish-barked tree trunks in the foreground and bright green new leaves on surrounding deciduous trees. The ground is covered in fresh spring grass and fallen pine needles under soft daylight.
Clusters of pale purple lupine wildflowers bloom across the sunlit floor of an open ponderosa pine forest, with tall reddish-barked trunks and fallen logs scattered among dry grass and pine needles.
A teepee-shaped shelter made of leaning dead branches and logs stands in an open ponderosa pine forest, surrounded by fallen logs, pine cones, and a forest floor of dry needles and sticks under a bright blue sky with wispy clouds.
A fallen, weathered tree trunk with a splintered, frayed broken end lies on a forest floor covered in dry pine needles and brown oak leaves, its bark peeling to reveal bleached gray wood riddled with insect holes.
A close-up of the reddish, flaky bark of a pine tree trunk showing scaly plates with small holes bored into it, set against a blurred background of dry grass, pine needles, and fallen branches on the forest floor.

I’ve heard it said that golfers appreciate a course with some good challenges — a worthy opponent, if you will. If so, and especially if that also applies to disc golf, then my hat is off to whoever placed this goal.

A blue disc golf basket stands in a grassy clearing directly beneath the steel lattice legs of a large electrical transmission tower, with evergreen pine trees and an overcast sky in the background.
Points for creative use of a power line!

That’s the easy hiking loop.

If you have more time, definitely cross the highway and explore the larger set of trails on that side. I had only time for about an hour on trail in that area, but even then I got to sample some of the views I mentioned earlier. I look forward to coming back someday with more time to explore the rest of the park.

A narrow dirt singletrack trail winds through a green grassy meadow dotted with shrubs toward a stand of tall ponderosa pines, under an overcast purple-gray cloudy sky at Brooks Memorial State Park.
A weathered, silver-gray fallen log with splintered, grooved wood rests on a dry, eroded dirt slope dotted with scattered oak leaves, pine needles, dry grass, and small green tufts, with a forested hillside and green undergrowth in the background.
A dense cluster of leafy green oak trees stands in a grassy meadow under an overcast, moody gray sky, with scattered smaller trees and a young pine dotting the open landscape at Brooks Memorial State Park.
A wide panorama of an open grassy meadow bordered by evergreen forest under a dramatic sky filled with turbulent gray mammatus-like clouds, with a dirt path and a small wooden bench leading toward distant tree-covered hills.
Mount Hood is in there somewhere, I swear!
A fallen, weathered log with bare jutting branches lies across a dry grassy meadow, backed by a line of pine and fir trees under a heavy, overcast gray sky at Brooks Memorial State Park near Goldendale, Washington.
A dirt trail curves gently through an open pine forest at Brooks Memorial State Park near Goldendale, Washington, flanked by low green shrubs and tall ponderosa pines beneath a heavy, overcast gray sky.
Clusters of purple and white lupine wildflowers bloom along a dirt trail on a dry, pine-needle-covered hillside in a ponderosa pine forest, with tall reddish tree trunks and green foliage rising in the background.

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