Hiking the Skagit Wildlife Area in the Skagit Valley

Special update for 2023: the Skagit Wildlife Area is temporarily closed until early November while the Department of Fish and Wildlife works on improving the dikes. Check the WTA (Washington Trails Association) website for updates.

Looking for other fun trails in the Skagit Valley?
Check out the Northern State Ghost Town in Sedro-Woolley or Little Mountain Park in Mount Vernon.

GOOD TO KNOW

• A Discover Pass is required to park at the Skagit Wildlife Area.
• Hunting season runs from approximately September through January. I don’t recommend hiking during this time, as your otherwise peaceful walk is likely to be punctuated by gunshots. More information is available on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
• There is a restroom at the trailhead parking lot.
• Pets are not allowed on the trail.

HIGHLIGHTS

An amazing variety of bird species make their home here, or pass by for layovers during annual migrations. We could see (and hear) hundreds of snow geese resting in nearby fields. In the slough, we saw a heron, several eagles flying to and from their nests, and a hawk swooped in to land on a tree right in front of us.

THE KIDS’ TAKE  

“Shooting birds is mean!” (You can find out more about this in our experience below…) But there are lots of cool sticks and feathers to be found along the way, and the wide path makes for great running. Just watch out for mud if you go off trail!

WHILE YOU’RE HERE

Nearby La Conner and Mount Vernon offer fun eating options and neighborhoods to explore. We headed to Railroad Pub & Pizza in Burlington afterwards to meet up with family, which offers excellent pizza and beer and even an old school arcade room. For more places to eat in the area, check out my guide to Eating Up I-5.

The Skagit Valley also offers numerous hiking options. We enjoying visiting Little Mountain Park, where you can hike the Bonnie & Clyde Trail or try a number of other trails. Northern State Ghost Town is another fun place to explore.

After the rain of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day dawned clear and fresh, perfect weather to start 2020 off with a First Day Hike. After initially considering a visit to Twin Falls to the south, we decided to head north to the Skagit Valley, giving us the opportunity to meet up with family for dinner after our hike. I did a quick review of trail options on the Washington Trails Association (WTA) website, and chose the Skagit Wildlife Area as our destination.

We arrived at the parking lot around 2pm and pulled on our outer layers (nothing too extreme, as the weather was a balmy 50 degrees). We then headed to the trail, which was actually a gentle gravel path atop the dike that skirts the waterways of Wylie Slough. The sun already hung low in the sky, sending pale golden beams over the water beneath the shifting clouds. We spotted a heron close by, balancing motionless at the edge of the water.

It was idyllic… well, as idyllic as it can be when your kids are more interested in running off their pent-up energy on a wide open trail and have no mind to use anything close to their “inside voices”. But then – gunshots!

Yes, gunshots. In our haste in picking this trail, I failed to notice that from roughly October through January, it’s hunting season in the Skagit Wildlife Area. A small sliver of the park near the trail entrance is marked as a “safe zone”, but this area is so small that it’s impossible to be far from the sounds, and potentially the sights, of active hunting.

I was dismayed (gunshots don’t equal a peaceful afternoon out in nature in my book), but wasn’t about to let it ruin my experience. The children, on the other hand, reacted a bit more strongly. We’re not a hunting family, and they had never encountered, never even entertained the idea, that there might be people who would dare to shoot birds. Birds! As four-year-old T put it, through tears, “It’s very, very mean to shoot birds!” Together, T and J plotted how they would get revenge on the “evil hunters”, while I tried vainly to draw their attention elsewhere.

“Look!” I pointed to a field in the distance as the sounds of snow geese grew louder. “The birds are about to take off! Hundreds of them! Come watch!”

Sure enough, several dozen birds broke off from the massive flock, rising to form a graceful V across the blue sky. And sure enough, bang! We could see the forms of two birds as they fell from following the shots. This was more than enough to bring T’s sobs to a fever pitch, as I hurried to take him as far as possible from the offending sight.

“The birds are dead!” he wheezed between sobs.

“Oh no, sweetie. There are still hundreds of birds, thousands even. Listen, you can hear them.”

But T was unconvinced. “No! That’s not the birds! The birds are all dead!”

The world is very black and white when you are four. I knew it was useless to argue with T, and instead chose to distract both kids with some toffee pretzels from Trader Joe’s. It took a little doing, but eventually order was restored. as we continued our hike, the sound of gunshots grew more distant and less frequent.

When we reached a small grassy area near a bench, both J and T decided they had gone far enough. Done with hiking, they built a pretend campfire made with long white feathers they found at the trail’s edge. My husband continued on the trail, which turned from gravel to grass as it wound through the trees lining the further reaches of the dike.

I sat on the bench overlooking the slough, out to the islands of the Salish Sea beyond. Ahhhh, so the hike hadn’t been a disaster after all.

This was when J, my eight-year-old, suddenly shouted, “Sand!” and made a run for the steep mud flat below the bench.

“No –- stop! It’s mud!” As soon as the words left my mouth, J’s foot lost its grip. Suddenly, he was sitting in mud, the back of his jacket and pants streaked with brown, his gloves covered. All things considered, it was a pretty graceful fall. I gave thanks that I remembered to follow my own advice and packed an extra pair of pants in the car.

As we made our way back toward the parking lot, our luck turned. Three bald eagles swooped in front of us, flying low across the marshes. Hawks, too, made an appearance, and one found a perch on a nearby tree where it ruffled its feathers and peered at us curiously.

Of course, not long after that, T fell on the gravel and scraped his hand, drawing a little blood and a lot more tears.

But ultimately, it was the perfect New Year hike. Just as in life, we experienced beauty and pain, uplifting moments and unexpected downfalls. What more could you want?

So, would I recommend this hike? Absolutely! But next time, I would check to see if it’s hunting season first.