Hiking experts offer tips, trailheads for shoulder season in Washington

In hiking, “shoulder season” generally refers to the period when the high country is too snowy for mainstream hikers and not snowy enough for most skiers. 

That time is now. What’s a hiker to do? We asked around for some ideas.

Craig Romano, the hiking dynamo with more than two dozen guidebooks to his name, urges outdoor people to try something new.

“There are so many different places and cool experiences to enjoy,” Romano said. “Just get out and sample it all. Don’t get stuck on one thing. I love the deserts, I love the prairies. It’s why I’m content wherever I go.”

Toward that goal, he suggested the following hikes for this time of year.

He recommended Iceberg Point on the southern end of Lopez Island, saying, “The San Juan Islands are one of the best places in the shoulder season.”

“It’s a great place to get an early jump on spring. Fall is nice, too, but it can be dry and things start getting brown. But in the springtime, blossoms are coming up, it’s a little warmer there, the birds are coming back, the Nootka roses are starting to bloom.”

Romano loves the 3.8-mile round-trip hike to Iceberg Point, including it in his “100 Classic Hikes: Washington.”

“It’s one of the few places in the San Juans that still has native prairie, and the views are incredible,” he said. “You’re looking straight across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic Mountains, right to the south of you. It’s just one of the best maritime views around.”

Islands closer to Seattle are also worth visiting in early spring, Romano said.

“Vashon Island, Anderson Island. The south Puget Sound islands are overlooked,” he said. “People think it’s a hassle to get to Vashon, but it’s not that difficult, and there are some wonderful hikes there.”

Try the Maury Island Natural Area, described in Romano’s ”Urban Trails: Seattle”; it features the longest undeveloped coastline in King County, stretching almost a mile. 

“I’ve hiked miles on those beaches and didn’t see anybody, and you’re in King County,” Romano said. “You can see planes coming and going from Sea-Tac and you’re all by yourself. Get up on those bluffs, and when it’s clear, you’re looking at Mount Rainier and the Cascades, and usually there’s no one around you.” 

For something new in an often-visited place, seek out the Crawford Oaks Trailhead at Dalles Mountain Ranch in Columbia Hills State Park.

“It’s a new trail system,” Romano said. “When I wrote my original Columbia Gorge day hiking guide, the park was just planning those trails. You can make your own loop out of three or four trails. It’s already a favorite with a lot of people.”

What’s the appeal for shoulder season specifically?

“If you’re there in March-April, you’ll see amazing flowers,” Romano said. “The Columbia Hills rise about 3,000 feet, and they’re open with flowers. Grass widows come out early. Balsamroot is all over the place, the lupine — the mountainside will just be yellow and purple. And you get good views looking across the Columbia River of Mount Hood.”

Rich DuBois is a wildflower enthusiast and an eight-year volunteer trip leader for The Mountaineers, and he loves traveling east at this time of year.

One favorite destination is Cowiche Canyon Preserve near Yakima.

“It’s sagebrush country, a shrub-steppe environment, and toward the end of March and April, the flowers out there are quite good,” DuBois said. “You can find some thick fields of flowers.

“The flowers out there are kind of unique. They get less than 10 inches of rain per year, it’s very cold in the winter and hot in the summer, so the plants have kind of interesting adaptations,” he continued. “There’s grass widows, yellow bells, spring gold and many species of desert parsley bloom in the spring, including the vibrant purple-red Columbia desert parsley.” 

In the preserve, DuBois recommended the East Upland Trail (likely the best for flowers) and the South Rim Trail. Nearby Snow Mountain Ranch, he said, also features memorable wildflower displays in the spring.

Outside of Ellensberg is the 4-mile Westberg Trail to Manastash Ridge, which DuBois values for its floral outbursts in the spring.

“The sagebrush violets there are gorgeous, along with the sagebrush buttercups,” he said. “The trail goes up to Manastash Ridge, and the wildflowers there start in April and go through June, and they change as time goes forward.”

A little west of Wenatchee are two spots, Sage Hills and Horse Lake Reserve, that DuBois said typically put on a terrific wildflower show each spring.

“In late April and early May, the Wenatchee area has some of the thickest fields of flowers I’ve ever seen,” he said. He recommended the Homestead Trail in Horse Lake Reserve.

“The soil is similar to the soil in Eastern Washington, which makes for good wheat crops. So these hills produce incredible fields of flowers.

“Central Washington is just beautiful in the spring,” he added. “You almost always get sunshine, and find more flowers than you would expect. You can get some really large displays of flowers, and it’s surprising how green it is. It’s an interesting area. We’re lucky to have that.”

Closer to Seattle, hikes with flowing water (though few flowers) are worthwhile destinations, DuBois said.

Try Skookum Flats off Highway 410 between Enumclaw and Rainier. Two miles into this mostly level out-and-back hike, a short side trail takes you to the base of 250-foot Skookum Falls.

“In March and April, it has a strong flow of water in it, and it’s a fairly impressive waterfall,” DuBois said.

Nearby is the trail to Snoquera Falls, a 4-mile loop to one of the state’s tallest falls at 449 feet. “It has some tall cliffs around the falls, and you’ll see some old-growth trees along the trail,” DuBois said. Other waterfall ideas can be found in Gregory Plumb’s Mountaineers Books title “Waterfall Lovers Guide: Pacific Northwest.”

Finally, guidebook author Tami Asars endorsed DuBois’ callout of Snow Mountain Ranch near Yakima for its eye-popping spring wildflowers, but the area is currently closed due to muddy conditions. You’ll have to wait on that one for now.

Another hike worth waiting for: Asars also likes nearby Waterworks Canyon, with a couple of loop options that showcase birds, butterflies and wildflowers. The area is closed through May 1 to protect wintering elk.