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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Squak Mountain State Park

south of Issaquah, Washington

visited 2 April 2022

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This park is just what the doctor ordered. Literally. I was encouraged to get out and sweat more. Two words come to mind from this hike: unrelentingly up.

I entered this park via the South Mountain Access Road. While shorter in miles, this is definitely not the easy way up. Over the first hour and a half of this hike, I climbed 1670 ft / 509 m.

Mission accomplished?

Oh yes. Definitely sweating.

A gravel and dirt forest trail curves gently through a dense evergreen woodland, flanked by tall conifers, moss-covered tree trunks, and ferns under a bright blue sky with scattered white clouds.

A gravel and dirt road curves gently through a dense forest of tall, moss-draped conifers and bare deciduous trees, with green shrubs and grassy undergrowth lining the roadside under a partly cloudy sky.

A gravel and dirt logging road curves gently through a dense evergreen forest, with tall conifers, moss-covered tree trunks, and lush sword ferns lining both sides under an overcast sky.

Oh, and were you thinking you might be rewarded with an amazing view for having done all that climbing? If so, this is not your park.

Behold, the view at the top of Squak Mountain:

I took a different route back down. Among other things, this offered me a chance to see the remains of the Bulitt family cabin (circa 1952). This family donated the land that eventually became this park.

A tall, moss-covered stone chimney and fireplace, the surviving ruins of an old structure, stands in a clearing surrounded by bare deciduous trees and tall evergreens in a forest. The empty firebox sits at ground level on a stone hearth, with a bare dirt clearing in the foreground under a deep blue sky.

A small painted rock resembling Humpty Dumpty — with a cracked egg-shaped face, red jacket, yellow bow tie, and colorful polka-dot legs — perched on a ledge of a moss-covered stone wall, with grass and green leaves at the base.

I took the May Valley Loop Trail back to the trailhead where I started.

A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through a dense evergreen forest of tall conifers, lined with sword ferns, fallen mossy logs, and bare undergrowth on an overcast day.

A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through a dense evergreen forest of tall conifers, lined with sword ferns and exposed tree roots. In the foreground, the rust-colored root wad of a fallen, decaying tree rises on the right, with fresh green shoots sprouting nearby.

A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through a lush, mossy evergreen forest, with tall conifer trunks and moss-draped branches surrounding dense green ferns and undergrowth in dappled midday light.

A dense temperate rainforest with moss-draped tree trunks and branches hanging with long strands of green moss, ferns growing on the forest floor, and dappled sunlight filtering through the evergreen canopy.

Thick moss-covered tree trunks fill the frame in a lush green forest, with a bright fern frond and additional mossy trunks visible in the gap between them, lit by soft daylight filtering through the canopy.

For more information:

State Parks web site

Birch Bay State Park

Peshastin Pinnacles State Park

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Squak Mountain State Park

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