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Seaquest State Park

east of Castle Rock, Washington

visited 20 May 2023

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One might think that with a name like Seaquest, that you would find this park near the ocean or at least on some sort of route to the ocean.

Not so.

This park is inland, on the road to Mount Saint Helens. (Mount Saint Helens Visitor Center, just across the road, offers some great views across Silver Lake to the mountain, some 30 miles to the east.)

No, the park is named for Charles John Seaquest, a Swedish immigrant who settled in the area circa 1870. His family left the property to the state for use as a park in the 1930s.

I drove in and thought for a while that this park offered only a campground and some picnic grounds, as shown here …

I was starting to fear that this might be a relatively boring park post. Indeed, I met somebody else, visiting from out of state, who was looking for hiking trails. No idea if she ever found the trails, but …

I did notice a worn, but unmarked, path leading out of one side of a parking lot.

It turns out that there is a nice network of trails here and — aside from the lack of signage from the campground/picnic area — they are quite well maintained and documented:

Being here in late May, the forest was full of lush green foliage. I did a roughly 3 mile / 5 km hike through this forest. It was delightfully quiet; I never saw anyone else the entire time.

For more information:

• State Parks web site