Haley State Park Property

Haven’t heard of Haley State Park? Me either, until an acquaintance showed me a map earlier this year that contained it. In the State Park parlance, this is an “undeveloped” park, which basically means there’s a trail through it. If you can find it.

I found it, of course, mostly because there’s a placard along a quiet county road that refers to some proposed development to include a parking lot and perhaps some trail improvements for a part of the trail.

You might notice on the home page that we seem to be heading toward something slightly more than 150 parks instead of the original count of 146. That’s because there have been a few “discoveries” like this: parks that weren’t mentioned on the official state parks site, but are owned by the state and … maybe someday, they’ll really be a park.

The parks system itself delicately dances around this by stating only that there are “more than 120” parks in the system and avoiding giving a precise count.

As of today, it’s a very quiet hike of 2.3 km / 1.4 mi each way to a beach that is mostly known to locals.

I quite enjoyed it, as you might discern from the photos that follow.

The part of the trail where you descend to the beach can get rather steep. Some kind soul has installed climbing ropes that I wish I had noticed on the way down. The ropes did help quite a bit with obtaining traction on the dusty trails when I was climbing out.

For more information:

• Washington Trails Assocation: Haley State Park
• Key Peninsula News: State Parks to Develop Haley Property Near Jackson Lake