Alderbrook Trails

Before we hiked up some of the trails at the Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal, we walked out along the dock both the evening before and the in the morning. In the evening we had a lovely view of some Olympic Peaks, the next morning was foggy, but we saw an otter on the dock, eagles flying, and a seal in the water.

Across the street from the resort are several connecting trails. We made a loop by hiking up the Licorice Fern Trail, down the Huckleberry Hill Climb and around the Viewpoint Loop, for 3 miles and 470 ft of overall gain. This was a lovely mossy forest with some early wildflowers in bloom.

Ginko Petrified Forest State Park Backcountry

We drove out to Ginko Petrified Forest State Park near Vantage to hike some of the backcountry trails. We started out hiking up and across the bench to Sternberg Point, then returned via the closed road, making a 5.8 mile loop with 880 ft overall gain. We had nice views of the Columbia River, saw some bighorn sheep,wildflowes and some petrified wood pieces. We also saw a marmot and a lizard (no photos) Great day! Started out hiking up to the bench.

View of the Columbia River looking south towards the Vantage Bridge

Looking north along the Columbia River, in the distance we could see two bighorn sheep

zoom of these two bighorn sheep

More views of the Columbia River

Further up the trail we saw a group of 7 bighorn sheep, we kept our distance, these are zoom photos

Marker ann views at Sternberg Point, along with some petrified wood pieces

Some more views along the trail

Some of the wildflowers we saw today: