Our weekend travels this time take us to Liberty Lake Washington. Only about a 45 minute drive away from home. I have been wanting to go there for a weekend outing for a while but just never got around to it. The main reason for us to go there was to make it a base camp for hiking the many miles of trails offered there. Usually the place is booked and when I thought about going there, we could not get in. This time we found a site available so we booked it right away.
This campground and its surrounding facilities is operated by Spokane County. The campground is open seasonally from May to September. I read on reviews on various sites that for RVing, most sites were very unlevel. But otherwise people seemed happy with the place. Once we arrived I could see why there were complaints. Our site was not too bad and with being a shorter length than big trailers and such, leveling was achieved without too much work. Others though had to do a huge amount of blocking to level. Some sites would have been real bad even for us. Overall, that was the only complaint I had about the place as well. I sent my feedback to them stating my thoughts about it. Now, on to the good.
We got set up and had a beverage in hand by 5pm. Bonus of being so close by that even after a work day, we were there so early.
Eventually Joanne made us dinner. Spam and a Hawaiian pasta salad. I know many turn their nose up at spam but we like it. I think it is all about how it is prepared.
We had a nice night, hanging at camp. We sat around our propane campfire that night and enjoyed our time together.
The next morning after coffee and breakfast we set out to do a hike. The Liberty Lake Loop Trail is a hike I have been wanting to do for several years. I have always heard that it was scenic and included waterfalls in the earlier part of summer before the creeks run dry or down to a trickle. A bonus that there were several geocaches along the trail too.
We had found a few geocaches and did not find a couple others on this hike. We also skipped a few, spending our time paying more attention and effort into the trail hike. We already knew we will come back again. We will look for the other caches at that time.
We had a hike break at the cedar grove area, drinking our water and having a snack. Sure was a nice spot to sit and rest at. Up to this point the trail is slightly uphill but pretty easy to hike. Once you cross the bridge at the cedar grove it is an uphill adventure. Starting right off with several switchbacks. For those not into the big uphill hike, this spot makes a good turnaround area. But turning around here makes it so you do not see the waterfalls.
We rested at the falls for a bit. Drinking more water and taking in what this spot had to offer. I refilled my life straw water bottle here. We still had a good amount of hiking to do.
We eventually continued our hike farther up the trail. Still more uphill to get up. Along the way there were two more sets of waterfalls. We thought they were even better than the one earlier. We enjoyed them from the distance for a few minutes before continuing our hike.
We reached our highest spot of the hike at a cabin. At the cabin there is a pit bathroom nearby for those that need to use it. This spot made it the perfect place to stop and have our beer and lunch we brought with us. I had a small cooler in my backpack. The cabin has been rebuilt a couple times for Eagle Scout projects over the years.
After our rest it was onward to the loop back to camp. From the cabin to camp it would be downhill with a little bit of flat trail near camp. This side of the loop hike was drier with different trees, plants and wildlife. This portion of the trail is also shared with horses and bikes. The long downhill with often steep grades was pretty hard on my knee. Downhill is much worse on it and I prefer uphill hiking on dealing with the pain. Some bike riders passed up going uphill then later came back by us going downhill.
We eventually made it back to camp. With our hiking around we ended up doing 8.9 miles. With around 1600 feet of elevation gain. We strayed from the trail at times hiking uphill to look for geocaches. With taking our time and spending time looking for geocaches, it took us 5 hours to complete.
Back at camp it was great to use our outside shower to have cool water sprayed on our heads and do a quick rinse off of trail dust on our legs.
The rest of the day and night was spent at camp. It ended up that some fellow geocache friends were at the park as well and they stopped by and chatted with us. After dinner a fellow truck camper couple came over to our camp to sit around our propane fire and chat. It was a pleasure meeting them.
It was a great day with great weather. While still tired, I thought about when I will do the hike again. There were geocaches to find that we skipped or did not find. Not sure when we will come back but at some point we will.
The next morning after breakfast we walked down to the beach. It is a little bit of a jaunt from camp but not too bad.
After walking to the beach we went back to camp and got packed up. We really enjoyed our stay here. Again, the unlevel sites were the only thing that was not so good. We would come back again if we have the chance. If this is a spot you want to bring your RV to, just be advised on the site slopes. Other than that, enjoy it!
The TC Life 