Flowing Lake Snohomish County Park, site #24
Campground||Snohomish & Skykomish (Coast Salish) land
Omg we’re back at Flowing Lake campground, and we’re not in site #4 this time! Last time, we had the ugliest camp site in the whole campground, so we made sure to really scope out the rest of the sites to find the best of the best. And the absolute best is site #24. Pretty sure I was only able to snag this because it was Memorial Day and most people were leaving the day we’d be arriving. (I found out later that some long time friends had actually been in our exact campsite in the days directly before we were there!) Worked out well for us!
I’d been a little bit worried about Leeloo, because she’s been feeling kind of off about camping lately. We’d made a lot of progress at Kanaskat-Palmer the last time we were there, but then site #4 seemed to cause a set back. We were super exposed in that site to not only the road, but to the hiking trail, and even a house. She was not lovin’ it.
Turns out all she really needs is some privacy at base camp! Even with the trail going along two sides of our campsite, it was so heavily forested and peaceful that she didn’t seem to care! There’s also not any other campsites super close by, making it the most isolated site.
This time, having the trail right next to us was actually a huge boon, because that means the kids can easily explore the woods when I take them for their rambles. This is part of what made Leeloo such a fan of our last Kanaskat-Palmer campsite, too. Woods access.
We pulled in, I got Majel converted to bed mode, and got the little bit of a kitchen ready. The kids were immediately poking around, checking things out through the windows as soon as I let them out. Since Yunnie had to ride in the front seat (buckled in, of course), one of the Sleepypods had to go in the Yakima luggage carrier on the roof. Leeloo’s stayed because she likes to hang out in hers while Sieh prefers to relax on the bed with me.
It was overcast, and since the forecast was for a bit of rain we got all cuddled up inside with the space heater on. You can really tell that things are warming up, because I could only turn the heater on low, and even then I had to keep turning it off because we’d start to get too roasty toasty. While we watched the rain softly falling against Majel’s windows, I finished reading the english translation of The Guest Cat by Hiraide Takashi. It had elements of sweetness, but overall it was depressing and left me feeling annoyed at some of the characters. Oh, well, better than the magical cat shelter book I DNFed on one of our last camping trips.
While I read, Leeloo and Sieh poked around in Majel, settling here and there for naps. A little before 7pm, I got their pre-made meals out of the cooler and sat them in front of the space heater to defrost. About a month ago I bought a set of stainless steel plates with silicone lids. I can now briefly thaw the raw food that we’re going to bring, premix the supplements in, and then refreeze it all. It worked AMAZINGLY. They ate every bite of their dinners.
Remember how I said we kept getting too warm with the heater on? Well, we didn’t even need it for most of the night. It wasn’t until just before dawn, when the temperature hits its lowest, that I woke up shivering and turned it on.
Day 2:
After breakfast and resting a while, I got the bike trailer down from the luggage pod on the roof. It’s so cleverly designed that it sets up in like, 1 minute. I’m not even kidding. Definitely less than 2. Got Yunnie out of the car, hooked the bike trailer to her, and then got back in to rest with the kids again.
Today my need for lots of rest was actually a good thing, because the garbage truck came around at noon. Leeloo does NOT like garbage trucks. She has to carefully monitor them the whole time they’re around, and she can’t relax until they’re gone. It would have been very upsetting to her if we’d been out and about when it swung by. I try to keep track of when all of our campgrounds have their trash pick ups, specifically for her.
Once the truck was gone, I got the kids into the bike trailer and myself into Yunnie, and then we were off! Leeloo and Sieh were so excited! There was so much to look at and the campground was almost empty after the busy weekend. We met a nice lady with a little terrier who jumped excitedly at her side when it saw us.
This was our official introduction to wet pavement on steep hills, which worked in a way that was remarkably similar to light gravel. I had to slow waaaaaaay down. There are a lot of really steep hills in this campground, and OAS (Yunnie’s brand) says to not exceed 9 degrees inclination or declination. We were definitely exceeding 9 degrees by a wide margin, haha. Thankfully, the kids seem completely unbothered by my attempts at recreating various scenes from The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift.
We rolled down to the dock, but not onto the dock, because that thing is rotten and I didn’t want us getting stuck or falling in. I did, however, take us on the lake shore trail that during our last camping trip we’d found practically impassable with the rollator. I’d been pretty sure that a wheelchair couldn’t handle it, which turned out to be a mostly accurate assumption. Technically we made it all the way, but about 10 seconds in, the trail ripped the tire of one of my front casters half-way off. I was HORRIFIED and at first thought Yunnie had broken. Thankfully, I was able to convince the tire to return to its designated position, and we rolled onwards, but at a much, much slower pace. I had to weave back and forth, trying to find us the least horrific path. We made it, but it was rough. I’ve done it so you don’t have to. I’m Johnny Knoxville, and this is Jackass.
We zoomed around a bit more, and I found that like with the gravel, Yunnie only drifts when going down hill. I was leaning forward going up the super steep hills because I have a bit of a paranoia about falling backwards (absolutely abhor it.) Probably didn’t need to do all that because Yunnie was handling it like a champ, but better safe than sorry.
While we were cruising around and testing Yunnie’s capacity for hills, we happened upon our old nemesis, site #4. When I’d been communicating with the county, one of the things they told me they were going to do in order to rectify the situation was that they’d put in a work order for a clean up of the site. It no longer looks like there was a massive flood leaving logs and brush all stacked up, and there’s even room for a tent now! It’s still a very bare site, though, and that house is RIGHT THERE. Glad they work so quickly and efficiently!
After that we headed back to good ol’ site #24 where we got some much needed rest. I had lunch and Leeloo and Sieh had Churus. Later, I took them out for some quick individual walks around the campsite. They loved this, and I really wish that walking around didn’t wear me out so quickly, because they could have kept going.
After they had their bit of a wander, we piled back into Majel and the kids’ grandma called. We’ve been reading the most recent Dungeon Crawler Carl book (“A Parade of Horribles”) aloud, so I messed around on Animal Crossing on my Switch while she read. Leeloo is a lot like Mongo.
After dinner and before going to sleep, I finally found on the county website where it talks about replacing the dock, and it turns out they’re going to replace that horrible lakeside trail, too! They also have completely new accessibility features planned, such as a path to get down to the swimming area, two wheelchair accessible picnic tables for the covered eating area, and an accessible kayak hand launch at the dock, which is also going to be made accessible when they replace it. Very exciting stuff! Love to see my tax dollars at work for something positive.
Day 3:
Last day camping! The sun was shining and it was gorgeous outside! We got up and had breakfast, and then immediately headed out in Yunnie and the bike trailer, because I wanted to make sure that Leeloo and Sieh had lots of fun before we headed home.
We went and checked out some of the walk/hike-in campsites, which are the only campsites with much of a view of the lake. They’re pretty damn nice. I also spent some more time documenting which campsites would be good alternatives if we couldn’t get our now beloved site #24 at some point. While we were zooming around, I noticed that quite a few sites could work for wheelchair users, except there was often a few inches discrepancy between the packed dirt of the site up to the paved road. You’d either need big front wheels or be able to pop a wheelie.
There’s a site with an accessibility tag that isn’t marked as accessible on the map, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that. It’s across the campground from the bathrooms. There’s a short-cut path through the woods but it’s not wheelchair-accessible. While the pull-through is paved, the picnic table (which, if I recall correctly was not wheelchair accessible) and fire ring are not on pavement, actually making this one of the less accessible sites. Many of the plain dirt sites are more fully accessible. The accessible site that’s marked on the map is #18. It’s right next to the bathrooms and is fully paved, including under the picnic table (which didn’t seem to be wheelchair accessible for some reason?) and the fire ring. Okay, that’s it for your Official Accessibility Report.
Back at site #24 I took the kids out for another wander. Leeloo was so happy about the nice weather and she had a great time stomping around. She also danced around and rubbed on Majel numerous times, really showing her some love. So glad that she sees her as her safe spot. Sieh got to stare longingly up at more trees during his walk, which is really all he wants out of life.
We had a short rest after that, then I packed us up, and we hit the road. Really digging on this campground. Do you have any really baller campground recommendations for us in the greater Snohomish/King County-ish area? We’d love to hear about them!
Camp Like Noodle 