Katy Trail & Klondike Park

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With a day off of 60 degree weather and a forecast of rain all week afterward, I couldn't deny myself a trip outdoors even though I had taken the day off to rest and try to shake this cough and congestion I've had for over three weeks now. Roomie Ashley joined me. Originally we had been going to Matson Hill Trail, which is actually mostly for mountain biking, but is also listed as a good hiking trail by the 60 Hikes book. However, once we arrived there found that a "trail closed" sign. How disappointing! After a quick look through this book, I thought we'd check out Klondike Trail.

Too bad we turned too soon and parked at the boating ramp river access instead of the actual park! This was kind of confusing for us, and we ended up walking down quite a bit of the Katy trail instead, even though parallel to the Katy trail at the parking lot was a trail access to Klondike Park too... which I didn't notice until the walk back to the car. The Katy trail is always nice though, with beautiful huge cliffs to one side that are dizzying to look up-- we even saw a Beaver (we think that's what it was) climbing up the steep slope! It was shady and empty of most people, since it was the middle of the day on a Monday, but we ran into quite a few workers on the trail with large machinery that was slightly mood-killing.

After a bit on the Katy Trail, we found another access trail to Klondike Park, a hill leading upwards where we found a lake surrounded by lots of rocks and white sand, not at all what I was expecting to find. We walked around the lake, which was lovely, the sand was almost blinding. We finally found the trails that we had been expecting there, and took a bit of the Power-Line trail that, as the name suggests, follows along some tall telephone-pole-like structures, while down beneath is the Katy trail and in the distance a the power-station, which seems to make a noise that you can hear even at the distance. A noisy trail, I'd suggest music of your own. I'd like to return to Klondike Park and see it as it is supposed to be seen, because I have a feeling that the trail point that starts at the boat access point by the Katy Trail probably takes you up to the cliffs for nice views.

The Katy Trail

First sight of the lake at Klondike Park

 The white sand almost looks like snow, but with 60 degree weather, it isn't!

Power-line Trail at Klondike Park


Very industrial revolution view mixed with nature from the trail at Klondike-Park.

view from the nearby Sugar Creek Winery, with Katy Trail and highway 94 below.