Lord Hill Regional Park rests on the Snohomish River by Highway 2 near Monroe. The place got its name from Mitchell Lord, who purchased 80 acres on the hill in 1879. Initially used for dairying, the 1400+ acres is now a multi-use park.
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Lord Hill Regional Park at a Glance
Access: South Lower Parking Lot (park info)
Round Trip: 5 miles
Elevation Range: 40′-626′
Gear: none
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: yes
The Preface
Like yesterday, I had hoped to stay close to home by checking out Cougar Mountain for the first time. But despite this morning’s promising weather outlook, Issaquah was foggy with drizzles. I wasn’t too keen on hiking in the rain.
So I sat in the Starbucks parking and flipped through recent reports. Then I stumbled across Lord Hill Regional Park up by Monroe, Washington. Guess we wouldn’t stay that close to home, after all.
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South Lower Parking Lot
There were several entrances to the park. Since we came from the south, the south lot was the most direct. But instead of taking the road by the exit, I went back on the freeway by mistake. Then I had to drive to Maltby and turn around to repeat the process.
This park didn’t look huge on the map. So initially, I thought about including Bald Hill as well. As it turned out, the top was in the backyard of a house, so we skipped it. But we enjoyed our walk in the rest of the park as planned.
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Lord Hill Trail System
From the car, we walked uphill a bit to go inside the trail network. I used my favorite WTA trip reporter‘s write-up for this trip, except that we hiked counterclockwise. At the top of the Pipeline Trail was a kiosk, where we began looping through the area. It started to drizzle.
We were mainly in the forest before coming up to Marsh Lake. Perhaps it’s the low water, but the lake looked more like a swamp. The dense brush kept us from moving closer to the shore, and I was too lazy to fight it. Somehow I could ly find the names of the lakes on the park map.
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Lord Hill Regional State Park
At the next fork, we went north on the Marsh Lake Loop with lots of mossy trees. Soon, the Pond Loop put us near Temple Pond’s east shore, the largest body of water in this park. We got a look at the lakeshore via the short loop trail as a few ducks swam carefreely.
Beyond Temple Pond was the Dragonfly Pond, where we paused and continued north. We later stopped off to the side of the trail and took a break among the tall timbers. The pup has been napping in my pack and hasn’t moaned much so far.
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View Peak
Two groups walked past us during our rest. Afterward, we went north on the trail. The path later took us out of the forest onto the Pipeline Trail. Then we hiked south for a short way before going on Rock Candy Trail. After crossing Midway 3, we took the View Peak Loop Trail up to the top.
We later walked clockwise through a few openings with plants overhead. Low clouds have kept us from looking out to the park. Before completing the loop, we went above the trees to the lookout area. On a clear day, it would be a perfect place to see Snohomish River Valley.
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Outro
We exited through Liquid Bread and Quarry Trail. But before going down to the river shore, we walked past Beaver Lodge Pond, where a few ducks swam across. There we saw our first person today and chatted briefly. They were on a loop hike also but coming in from the north.
Shortly, we hiked down to the Steamshovel Trail but didn’t bother with checking out the Riverside Trail. So we continued on the path until we reached the car.
See more trip photos here.