Gold Creek Trail

We decided to hike Gold Creek Trail mostly just to get some outside time. The trail didn’t look too interesting but we had never been there before. It starts and finishes at Gold Creek Pond near Hyak, on I-90 west of Seattle.

We headed out down a quiet gravel road with ski cabins through pleasant forest. The trail passed by Hell’s Pond, which we renamed Hell’s Puddle. It was not very impressive! Shortly after Hell’s Puddle we left the road and headed out on Gold Peak Trail.

A bit further along the trail, we were excited to find a talus field on Gold Creek Trail because in Washington talus fields are prime pika territory!

We paused and stood quietly for a few moments. We heard the distinctive cheep of a pika far off. Jenna said to me, “I guess we won’t see any pikas but at least we heard a cheep.” But just as she was about to say “cheep” we both jumped as the loudest pika cheep we’d ever heard sounded from very close by!

A pika posing majestically on a rock

We spotted the pika about 30 yards away. He cheeped and posed handsomely for us. He even waited for me to switch to my long zoom lens, so we came home with some amazing pika portraits!

After our pika encounter, we continued a bit further on the trail and then turned around. We spotted a few more pikas in the talus field on the way back but not very close. Still, it was our best pika hike to date!

Gold Creek Pond

Our hike ended with a walk around the perimeter of Gold Creek Pond. It was surprisingly beautiful with wildflowers, an island, and good views of the mountains across the pond.