Field Trips
Remember that you must be a current NWGS member to sign up for a field trip. Please sign up or renew your membership if you are not a current member. Please sign into the website to access signup forms.
Coal Creek, Bellevue – Saturday August 24, 2024
* Sign up by August 21, 2024
Please note there is no transportation on this trip. It is up to participants to find their way to the start point. We encourage carpooling as parking is limited and trails are popular in the summer. Download the Map and Directions to the trailheads in order to join the trip.
Please register for the field trip and pay the fee using the registration form. If you need to pay via check, please register and select the Check option. You can mail your check to Kathleen Goodman directly: 5911 124th CT NE, Kirkland, 98033.
Details
This trip is led by Tom Doe, our December 2023 speaker who talked about Cougar Mountain and the Coal Creek area in Bellevue. 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 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 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.
Cornwall and Somerset, England– September 20-28, 2025
* Sign up by September 30, 2024
We are organizing a Southwest England with our wonderful British field trip leaders, Chris and Colin, from the 2016 Scotland trip. Details of the trip and itinerary are available in the brochure. The trip will be from Sept 20-28, 2025, which seems like a long way off but to arrange a trip like this it takes a year in advance to arrange lodging and keep the costs as reasonable as possible. With that in mind, we will need to have people sign up by September 30 (yes, this year!) by filling out the booking form and sending it to Chris Darmon at [email protected]
Important note:
Please send your $750 deposit check to Kathleen Goodman. We will collect all the deposits in USD and transfer the money to the UK in one payment.
Kathleen’s address: 5911 124th CT NE, Kirkland, 98033.
Many NWGS members have gone on Chris and Colin’s trips before. Kathleen has been to the Scottish Highlands in 2016, Ireland in 2022, NE England/Scottish lowlands in 2023 and Cyprus in April 2025. Other folks in the NWGS have been on their Norway, Canary Islands, Iceland and Outer Hebrides trips. Chris and Colin are very skilled at running these trips and making sure that the accommodations are comfortable, all meals are included, and travel during the week is by a comfortable coach with an expert driver. Extra expenses would be the oversees flight and incidentals, but you can read about all the details on the brochure.
So please sign up as soon as possible for one or both of these trips! Non-geologist significant others are welcome, as always. More details to follow.