Coal Creek, Bellevue – Saturday August 24, 2024
* Sign up by August 21, 2024 – Form at the bottom of this page.
Our Summer 2024 field trip will be lead by Tom Doe, our December 2023 speaker who spoke about the Cougar Mountain and Coal Creek area in Bellevue. Directions and map to the trailheads are downloadable here: 2024 Directions for NWGS Field Trip
Tom will lead us on a Saturday hike relating the trail network in the Cougar Mountain Wildland Park to the geology and the mining history that is particularly well expressed in the DNR’s accessible LIDAR and the coal mine map databases. The field trip will present a geologic overview, coal mining history, and sinkhole development.
The morning trip will start at the Red Town Trailhead [47.534951, -122.128543] in Bellevue (off of Lakemont Blvd) at 8:30 AM and we will hike for about 3 hours and then walk back to our vehicles. From there we will drive to Sky Country Trailhead [47.533484, -122.113686] for lunch about 1 mile east and meet to continue the afternoon portion at 12:30 PM. This second leg of the trip will end approximately 4:00. Each leg of the trip will be about 3 miles of hiking with 200-250 feet elevation gain, and you can join one or both. Parking is more limited at the Red Town Trailhead than at Sky Country Trailhead and both are popular in the summer so it would be helpful to carpool if possible. All of the walking will be on well-developed trails except for two short excursions to look at coal seams in (what should be) dry creek beds. Hiking or trail shoes will suffice for feet. Poles may be helpful for the short excursions. The hiking will be mostly in shaded areas but sunscreen is nonetheless highly recommended.
Pack water and a lunch to eat in between the trailheads. The cost of the trip is $25 and we can take the first 18 people to sign up and pay. Register with the form below.
You must be a current member to sign up for the field trip. The signup form will not be visible unless you are signed into the website with your username.