Sound Bath and Urban Walk - Moss Lake Natural Area

This is my mentored Urban Walk and Liz McNett Crowl is the mentor leader. 

My Style: I like to walk together as a group taking breaks as needed.  My goal is for us to enjoy the forest and wildlife along the way, which includes making stops to take pictures or discussing a plant or a bird.   If these are activities you don’t enjoy, this may not be the hike for you.

The Walk:   This walk is approximately 4.6 miles with 250 ft of elevation gain and our pace (moving speed) will be approximately 1.5 – 2 mph.   It is a well-maintained forest trail and not a paved trail so please wear hiking boots or hiking shoes.   

Description modified from the King County website ‘Located in the Cascade foothills, Moss Lake Natural Area is 372 acres of high-quality wetland and forested upland habitat with three miles of multi-use trails. The extensive 150-acre wetland includes the 40-acre sphagnum bog surrounding Moss Lake, decades-old beaver dams, and a cattail and spirea-fringed lake. Sphagnum moss bogs, the most sensitive and rarest habitat type, are unique plant communities composed of up to twenty-five feet of acidic peat deposits that build up over very long periods of time, locally at a rate of one inch per forty years. Being unique, bogs like the one at Moss Lake Natural Area are home to similarly unusual and rare plants and creatures such as the Beller's ground beetles. The Round-leaved Sundew, a common but not abundant carnivorous plant, is occasionally found growing on the moss at Moss Lake.  Moss Lake Natural Area is also an excellent place for bird watching for species such as bald eagle, Vaux’s swift, belted kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, red-tailed hawk, pileated woodpecker, and band tailed pigeon.’    Dating back to the 1800s Moss Lake has been the site for harvesting of the surrounding forest and extraction of the moss until it was acquired in phases by King County from        1990 – 2002.   For further information on the history, visit the King County Moss Lake site.

Moss Lake trailhead in Carnation, Wa.  This is a King County park located about 5 miles southeast of Duvall, 3.5 miles northeast of Carnation and one mile east of Lake Joy in the Cascade foothills.   The last ½ mile of the neighborhood road leading to the park has potholes and is rutted in some places. A high clearance vehicle is advised as a low clearance vehicle may not be comfortable traveling over this portion of the road.  There is a vault toilet at the trailhead.  No pass is required for parking.

Directions: 

Google Maps link  

Moss Lake Washington Trails (WTA) Association Link   

Moss Lake King County Park Link    

Start Time: 10 am.  Plan to arrive at 9:45 am and ready to go at the trailhead by 10am.  We will have a short pre-walk meeting at the trailhead before departure.