We left in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, headed for the "Old Robe Canyon Trail" just northeast of the town of Granite Falls, about 50 miles from Seattle. When we got to the trailhead (a blank brick pillar at the edge of a grove of trees) it was raining, but we went ahead. The trail wound through the woods, then started down a steep hill through a series of switchbacks. At the bottom, it passed through almost swampy territory, with some large trees, and even larger-leaved plants. When we reached the river (a fork of the Stillaguamish), it was rocky but calm and relatively wide, with the same kind of wooded plain on the other side. As we followed the trail, we got closer and closer to the river, until we were clambering over rocks along a former gold rush train track cut right into the rocks. You could still see RR ties embedded in the rocks, even though most of it had been obliterated by rockslides. We were hoping to reach the main attraction of the trail--two RR tunnels--but the trail was closed just in sight of the first one. But the weather cleared up and it was sunny on the way back up the hill, and the scenery was gorgeous, and the boys did a great job of walking about 3 miles!
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