Hi, I'm Eric.

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

I help implement the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe.

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127
Fields Spring State Park
127

Fields Spring State Park

south of Anatone, Washington
visited 4 May 2024
Back to parks list

It’s been a while since I’ve done a park visit. The 20 or so parks that remain on my to-do list are mostly open seasonally, so the project necessarily took a bit of a hiatus this past winter.

Here we are in spring, and Fields Spring park called to me. This park is in a very remote corner of southeastern Washington. It’s shoulder season, which meant that neither skiiers nor campers were present. In my hour and a half hike through the park, I saw nobody on the trails. (This was a plus in my book.)

This park offers solace and an opportunity to hike through high alpine forest. Most of this park is around 1300m / 4300ft elevation. A good workout, in other words.

I corresponded briefly with this park’s ranger before making this trip. She informed me that had I been able to arrive a few weeks later, the park would have been much more lush and wildflowers in bloom. I couldn’t make that fit into my schedule, so I went ahead this weekend. A few wildflowers were getting an early start on blooming, but not yet noteworthy.

Ah well.

A narrow dirt hiking trail winding uphill through a forest of tall conifers, with a blue diamond trail marker nailed to a large tree trunk on the right and patches of bright green spring undergrowth along the path under an overcast sky.
A narrow dirt footpath winds through a coniferous forest, lined with fresh green spring undergrowth and dry brown pine needles covering the ground. Tall pine trees with rough bark and dead lower branches frame the trail under an overcast sky.
A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through an open coniferous forest of tall pine and fir trees, with green spring undergrowth and scattered fallen logs and branches on either side under an overcast sky.
Looking straight up at the silhouetted tops of tall conifer trees converging toward a pale, overcast sky, their dark trunks and branches radiating outward from the center of the frame.
Looking up through a group of trees.
A large fallen, weathered tree trunk lies across a grassy hilltop meadow under a heavily overcast sky, with stands of evergreen pines and firs to the left and a hazy view of rolling hills and canyons stretching to the horizon.
A fallen tree in a grassy field.
A small dark green cabin with a peaked metal roof and covered porch sits on a grassy hillside surrounded by tall ponderosa pines under a cloudy sky. A wooden bench rests on the porch and the foreground is open meadow with patchy grass and scattered wildflowers.
Puffer Butte Warming Hut
A narrow, rocky dirt trail winds up a grassy hillside dotted with sagebrush and yellow wildflowers, leading toward tall ponderosa pine trees, with rolling green hills and a distant blue ridge under a cloudy sky beyond.
A narrow dirt hiking trail winds up a grassy hillside dotted with clumps of bunchgrass and small yellow wildflowers, leading toward a stand of tall ponderosa pines and fir trees under an overcast, lavender-gray sky at Fields Spring State Park.
A blue trail marker with a black directional arrow pointing right is nailed to a large ponderosa pine trunk with thick, reddish, plated bark. Behind it, conifer forest descends to rolling green hills and hazy blue mountains in the distance.
A close-up of weathered gray and reddish-brown tree bark dotted with small woodpecker or beetle holes, with tufts of bright chartreuse-yellow wolf lichen growing across its surface.
A tree trunk with moss growing on it.
A narrow dirt singletrack trail winds through an open pine forest, lined with bright green spring undergrowth and tall tree trunks draped with moss. A small blue diamond trail marker is fixed to one of the trees ahead under an overcast sky.
A wooden trail sign reading “CAMPGROUND” with a left arrow and “BALLFIELD” with a right arrow stands beside a dirt footpath winding through a green forest of tall pine and fir trees with leafy understory growth.

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