Trip Report
GoHike Day Hike - Padilla Bay Shoreline Trail
An easy flat walking path on the dike top along the southeastern shore of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve make this an ideal hike for those just starting to hike. There are lots of birds depending on the season, we saw Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, and Snow Geese.
Liz McNett Crowl
- Sun, Mar 27, 2022
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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We started from the north trailhead parking lot, located at 11290 Second St, Mount Vernon, WA 98273) and walk to the trailhead on the shoulder of narrow two lane road. Using this parking lot adds about .4 of a mile to the out and back trip.
There are toilet facilities at the north trailhead parking area and at the south end of the trail.
Timing the hike to when the tide is out is advisable as it seems to add to enhance bird activity in the bay and three sloughs you wall on. The trail is wide, hard packed small gravel on the top of a dike. It had rained previously and there were puddles but it was not muddy.
This was a GoHike: Beginning Hiking Series pacing hike. The hike was planned to demonstrate hiking paces to the group and assist with their self assessment of what kind of shape they are in, how difficult the hike was and how they might want to prepare for future hikes and meet their hiking goals (distance, elevation, pace) in the course over the next 6 months.
The weather was in the 50's, cloudy with sun breaks. We had a 5-10 mph wind, which was forecast.
Total trip time slightly over 2 hours, 4.8 miles, 30' of gain.