Length: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: ???

My friend Nicole and I went to Deception Pass State Park yesterday, though we definitely did not strictly do any of the trails on the WTA website and just rambled around a bunch of random trails and along the beaches instead. This was my first time at this park, and also my first time on Whidbey Island! Bring your Discover pass.

First, a tip: your phone will think you’re in Canada when you’re here and begin roaming. Put that phone on airplane mode or else this will happen —

PHONE: we’re in Canada!
ME: we’re not in Canada
PHONE: pretty sure this is Canada
ME: it’s not, trust me
PHONE: …nah, this is Canada! -roams for signal, drains a previously 50% full battery in 36 seconds, dies-

Thank goodness I happen to always carry at least two additional cameras on my person on any given hike (I am that person you see on the trails, it’s true).

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Length: 7-ish miles, roundtrip (not 8 like the WTA site says)
Elevation Gain: 1,750 ft

The Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area is in Kittitas, 2.5 hours outside of Seattle. I know. Whiskey Dick? It gets its name from Whiskey Dick Mountain, but how the mountain got that name, I… don’t know the backstory. Maybe there is none. Maybe it was named by a 13-year-old boy who thought himself quite hilarious.

The drive was a breeze — I was on paved road the entire way (I-90 to small town streets), which is important because I drive a very not-for-offroading sedan. Once I was inside the Wild Horse Solar & Wind Facility (which is where the wildlife area is located), I got my recreation pass from the main visitor’s building. Despite what the WTA website says, I didn’t need a Discover Pass to hike here.

A mile back down the same road is where the trail began. This was marked by a tiny stone with a plaque on it.

And I mean tiny.

This place was nothing like the green old growth forests of Western Washington, so I can imagine that some people might find it kind of boring. But I loved the tumbling hills of low sagebrush as far as the eye can see — it just made everything that much more vast, especially since I also hiked this on a clear, cloudless day. The sky went on forever.

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