Trail Talk - Heybrook Lookout
This weekend the mountains were calling and I had to go. 🌲It had been awhile since I had been out hiking, but it felt amazing to lace up my boots and get outdoors. I headed up to Heybrook Lookout because not only is it a trail I love, but I thought it would be a good way to start off my hiking season since it's on the shorter side (about 2.6 miles round-trip) and with some elevation gain (about 850 feet).One of the reasons I love Heybrook Lookout is the accessibility to the trailhead and that it has quite a bit of parking. When I got to the trailhead there were only two cars in the parking lot and those hikers were just finishing up their hikes as I was getting on the trail so it was a nice and quiet morning as I was hiking up the trail.The trail was a little muddy in places due to the recent rain, but nothing too bad at all. Quite a few trees came down this winter but none of them are blocking the trail in any way (but it's interesting to see how huge some of them are). The birds were out and chirping along with some little squirrels zipping along across the trails. This was a very cloudy day so there wasn't much of a view from the lookout (and at times I couldn't even see the ground from the top of the lookout) but it was a peaceful morning up there sitting in the clouds and the trees.[gallery ids="186,188,187,189,185,190" type="columns"]By the time I was coming down the trail, there were many families getting their start up the trail and there were just a couple of parking spots left at the trailhead. It was great to see so many families making some time to be outdoors with their loved ones on this cloudy (but nice) Spring day.
If you want to learn more about this hike and read some trip reports from other hikers, check out Heybrook Lookout on the Washington Trails Association (WTA) hiking guide.