Best Day-Hikes in Vashon Island, Washington

I don't know about you, but when I hear talk of hiking I am immediately inspired to lie down. On the other hand - or foot - I do like a lovely walk. If you agree and are in the Seattle-Tacoma area, get yourself to Vashon Island and her adjoining sister, Maury Island, and trail along. Whether you are a Sunday afternoon strollster or prefer to power yourself down the path with knees high and arms pumping, there is a trek here for you. Just twenty minutes by Washington State Ferry from Fautleroy Dock on the Seatte side; ten minutes from Point Defiance on the Tacoma side.

My personal Vashon favorite on the low-exertion end of the ambulation spectrum is a jaunt from Point Robinson to Maury Marine Park along the eastern shore of the island. Take off your shoes and start out with sand between your toes from the beach at Point Robinson Lighthouse. Tote a rucksack for collecting gnarls of driftwood polished smooth and silver brown by the swift waters of the Eastern Passage of Puget Sound.

Head southwest hugging the shoreline with your sandy toes until the rocks begin and footwear is advised. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for Mount Rainier across the water to your left. Depending on the cloud cover situation, this mountain of myth and legend may or may not show herself. I like her best when she wears a shawl of mist at her base and appears to float in midair like an apparition or a brush line drawing on a Japanese fan.

When you tire of gazing upward, check out the shallow water world of plants and shoreline marine life at your feet. Pick up a smooth stone and see how many times you can make it skip along the usually placid surface of the Sound. Start moving again and eventually there will be vegetation to your right, but this is primarily a waterside walk. You might more accurately call it a meander, only 3.2 miles from start to finish at Maury Marine Park. Just right for a solo stroll or when you've brought along a companion of the chatty rather than power pumping variety.

According to Destination Vashon 2009-2010, if you are walking off-season (mid-October to mid-Jaanuary) you might spot a pod of Orcas slipping gracefully between the white caps as you take the return trek to the Point where you began. At any season, a bevy of birds awaits. A serious watcher might see 60 to 70 species a day, especially between mid-November and mid-May, according to Ed Swan, author of The Birds of Vashon,

Top off your ambling afternoon with a tour of the historic lighthouse and a demonstration of the Victorian era Fresnel Lens reputed by Destination Vashon to have been brought to the Island from France in 1915 when the lighthouse first opened. Call (206) 463-6672 to schedule a tour from the end of May to October.

To get there, drive south from the town of Vashon on Vashon Highway SW to SW 204th. Turn left (eastward) and follow the signs to Maury Island, then Point Robinson and don't stop until you reach the beach.

Does all of that water have you pining for a wilderness that's been kept wild yet walkable? Since 1989, Vashon Maury Island Land Trust has made it their not-for-profit business to protect the wild beauty and largely rural character of the local landscape, as explained in their map guides to island trail walks. In those 20 years, this small but dedicated organization has raised $27 million to protect 1,150 acres of ponds, streams, forests and shoreline. You can join that effort at www.vashonlandtrust.org, and after you experience Island Center Forest you may want to do exactly that.

Island Center Forest is 343 acres of Pacific Northwest woodland owned by Washington State's King County and managed by a consortium of users. According to the Land Trust, this was once a working forest, home to the vigorous logging industry which, along with farming, was the backbone of local productive life at the time. The loggers are long gone, but the trees remain and they are magnificent.

A labyrinth of traditional hiking trails may tempt you to tighten your boot laces and take off at a brisk lick, but don't be surprised when your pace slows sooner than you planned. The natural beauty here is simply too spectacular to hurry past. Once again, birds abound. You will want to stop in a hush and listen for the tap-tap of a palleated woodpecker. The chorus of birdsong is everywhere. All in a setting that has been lovingly preserved as a wooded wonderland at the center of the island.

Pardon the cliche, but walking beneath these stately conifers brings to mind a vaulted cathedral shot through with beams of prismed light. Treat the botanist in you to a copy of The Peterson Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs for this region and toss it into your rucksack along with the pair of binoculars no ardent observer of nature should ever be without.

In case you are less than a wizard at pathfinding, contact Vashon Maury Island Land Trust at (206) 463-2644 or go on line at www.vashonlandtrust.org to access a map of Island Center Forest. Otherwise, you could find yourself semi-seriously lost among the twists and turns of trails that cover a wide stretch of the island from Thorsen Road to the west almost all the way to Vashon Highway SW to the east.

There are several entrances to the forest, but you will find the most convenient parking off Cemetery Road SW. Take Vashon Highway SW south from the town of Vashon to the next four-way traffic light. Turn right to head west on Cemetery Road SW to 115th Avenue SW. This is a dirt road, but don't panic. You're not lost yet. Drive slowly - it's bumpy here - a quarter mile to the end of the road and park. You can bring your pooch along on this outing if you like.

The most popular walking venue of these three, particularly among the locals, is Fisher Pond Preserve which, according to Land Trust literature, is co-owned and co-managed by the Land Trust and Vashon Park District. The preserve is named for Bill Fisher, the generous benefactor who donated this beautiful tract to the Land Trust. His legacy has been turned into a 90-acre freshwater and terrestrial sanctuary. The walking trail that circles Fisher Pond itself is as splendid in its inland way as the wide waterscape of the eastern shoreline and the deep woods of Island Center Forest.

Yet again, the pond is a bird lover's paradise. Visit in summer for a sublime show of aquatic choreography as wood ducks, blue herons and pied-billed grebes skim across the glossy surface of the pond, take off and land with a flutter of wings and a ripple of spray. If your ear is sufficiently avian-ready, you might even hear what bird expert Ed Swan refers to as the grebe's "weird call, sounding like some jungle creature or twisted squirrel." Who could resist that?

My suggestion: Get to the pond as close to sunset as possible. Sky color reflected in the water's surface, the shiftings of light and those ubiquitous birds tuning up for evensong make this the ideal ending to a day of tromping the trail. Take a little sit-down at the side of the path just to breathe it all in and congratulate yourself for being savvy enough to make such a peaceful detour from the day-to-day of your life. Of course, be sure to allow enough time to wend your way back to the road-more-traveled before darkness descends.

Fisher Pond Preserve and Trail is located on Bank Road, which is the east to west crossroad at the four-way stoplight in the very center of the town of Vashon. Take Bank Road west from the junction of Vashon Highway SW for about a mile to just past 115th Avenue on your right. Before you get to the pond, you will see a pullout at the side of the road with parking for a few cars.

Walks along the Fisher Pond trails range from one to two miles and are not difficult, though you can do the circuit more rapidly if you're out there for a workout. My advice would be to save the puffing and panting for the circular track at your gym. But then, as I have already made clear, when it comes to a walk on the wild side, I will opt for pausing to partake of the pine scent and ogle the evergreens every time.

This kind of hardly-hiking is my idea of meditation in motion, gratifying for the sensualist in me, relaxing to my core and a stress reliever par excellence. Grab a sturdy pair of shoes and give one or all of these toddles a try. I'll bet you just might end up agreeing with me. Harder isn't always healthier, and speed isn't necessarily the fastest way to get you where your body, mind and spirit truly need to go.

Sources:

Author: none attributed
Page Title: The Whales of Vashon
Publication: Destination Vashon 2009-2010

Author: Capt. Joe Wubbold
Page Title: Point Robinson: A Fresnel Lens Lights the Way
Publication: Destination Vashon 2008-2009

Author: none attributed
Page Title: Trail Maps to Island Center Forest and Fisher Pond/Algren Park
Publisher: Vashon Maury Island Land Trust

Author: Leslie Brown
Page Title: Hiking on Vashon: Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Publication; Destination Vashon 2009-2010