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

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98
Federation Forest State Park
98

Federation Forest State Park

east of Enumclaw, Washington
visited 15 May 2022
Back to parks list

Nestled along the shores of the White River east of Enumclaw is a rare patch of Washington’s old-growth forest, set aside due to the persistent work of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in Washington. For that reason, it was given the name of Federation Forest State Park when it was established in 1949.

This wasn’t their first attempt to save an old-growth forest. In the 1920s a similar effort was made and led to the establishment of the first Federation Forest State Park near Snoqualmie Pass, but that effort succumbed to logging, fire, and wind and was closed a decade later.

Today’s park offers several miles of hiking trails (which I wound up having almost entirely to myself, due to the gloomy weather) and a mile or two of raw White River shoreline.

A gravel trail winds through a lush evergreen forest with tall moss-draped conifer trunks, green undergrowth of ferns and broadleaf plants, and hanging lichen on the branches.
A narrow dirt trail winds through a dense forest of tall, straight evergreen trees, with a lush green understory of moss and ferns carpeting the ground on both sides under an overcast sky.
A wide river with rippled gray water flows past a gravel bank piled with driftwood, backed by a dense evergreen forest and a leafing deciduous tree in the foreground, all under an overcast, misty sky.
A close-up of a weathered, decaying log lying horizontally, its bark long gone to reveal soft, splintered wood pocked with insect boring holes and patches of dark mold. A band of bright green moss grows along the log’s lower edge, with a dark gravel or dirt surface visible in the background.
A muddy dirt trail winds through a grove of pale-barked deciduous trees with patches of green moss, their thin trunks rising against fresh spring foliage. A large fallen mossy log lies in the background amid grassy ground and darker evergreens on an overcast day.
A curled, moss-draped bare branch arches out over a wide river beneath an overcast sky, with a fog-shrouded forested mountain and evergreen and leafy trees lining the far bank.
The mossy base of a massive old-growth conifer trunk with deeply furrowed dark bark, green moss creeping up its lower reaches. Behind it, a hazy forest of moss-draped trees, ferns, and a soft-lit green understory recedes into the background.
A close-up of a fallen, decaying log with a broken bark section exposing reddish-brown rotting wood, surrounded by pale lichen patches, green moss, and conifer needles from a nearby fir or hemlock branch.
A rushing, rocky river flows through a forested valley under a heavy overcast sky, with evergreen trees and bright green spring foliage lining both banks and low clouds clinging to distant mountains.

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