Nolte State Park

Since moving to Washington, we have been amazed at the number and beauty of the state parks. We are within 15 miles of probably a dozen parks. This is definitely one of the reasons that we love living in Washington. It is cloudy quite a bit and we get more than our share of rain, but the place is so beautiful as a result of the moisture. Yes Christy, it is moist here. :) Another reason we love Washington and specifically Maple Valley, is we are in a great ward. We love the people, they are so welcoming.

The trip for the day started out trying to find the Hanging Gardens State Park. It is only a few miles from our house and sounded like a very cool place. Well either there is not an entrance or we missed it all together. No matter, we found the Nolte State Park just a few miles away and the drive was great. And lucky us, we ran into the Hornes when we got there. The park has a small lake in the middle with a trail circling around it. Here are some pics from the day. Enjoy...


Here is a raspberry getting ripe and ready to eat. If you live here, you know about all the wild berry bushes growing everywhere. There are so many, that people just stop their cars on the side of the road and start picking the berrys for jam or snacking. No wonder there are so many bears in this area.