A little over one and a half miles outside of Granite Falls Washington lives the most recent addition to the
Robe Canyon Historic Park,
The Lime Kiln Trail.
Built by a small army of 300+ volunteers
over the course of several years, the trail head opened in October of 2004.
While the first mile or so
of the trail follows old service roads and leaves one rather bored, you eventually head straight towards a stand
of trees, then disappear back into the past.
The trail follows a portion of the old Everett and Monte
Cristo Railroad grade next to the Stillaguamish river, which was built between 1892 and 1893. Along the way you will see Maple and Alder
trees, ferns, and even strawberry bushes if you keep your eyes up. The thing that stuck out
most to me taking this hike as apposed to its parent hike on the other end of the park, the Old Robe Trail, is
that there is really no sign of the old tracks. On the old Robe Trail you are walking
through old slabs with the grooves for the timers and track. No such beast on this side. But
that's not really why we are here now is it?
Roughly 2.6 miles
from the trailhead you reach your destination in a rather unexpected spectacular way after coming around a bend. There, on
your right suddenly stands a part of history. The lime kiln.
Now home to moss, ferns and other assorted plant life, you can hear the echo's of a time past as the people who worked here created
lime that was transported to Everett to be used as a Flux, a chemical cleaning agent. I have also read
it maybe have been used at a paper mill to make the paper white, but the "flux" item is
mentioned the most.
While at
the kiln be sure to walk around and look for the various artifacts that have been found
in the area, such as saw blades, bricks, broken pottery and other. I've seen pictures of
souls of shoes or boots but personally I did not see any of these. Just be sure NOT to
take anything home so that everyone else can enjoy the history of the place.
At the Lime Kiln you
will note another trail marker pointing out the end of the trail in 0.8 miles. For those of you
who are in love with the Old Robe Trail hike I suggest taking the extra 10-15 minutes to walk on down because
at the very end of the trail is the site of the old bridge crossing over to tunnel #1.
Reports say the entrace collapsed long ago and while I could not physically SEE the tunnel, you can see the old supports
for the bridge on both sides of the river. Someday I hope to cross over and go discover in person
what remains of tunnel #1 and #2 as all I've ever seen of them are old historic photos.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS:
Driving into Granite Falls from SR 92, drive straight up the gut of downtown. At the stop sign at North/South Alder Street, take a right. (Golds Gym is on your right). Next,
take a left on Menzel Lake Road and follow that for roughly 1.2 miles. On your left, take the Waite Mill Road. You will
then drive about half a mile to the bus turnaround, the big half circle on your right. It is there you will see a
bend to the left, and the forest service marker for the hike. Depending on availability you can
either park up in the formal parking lot near the trail head, of there is some limited parking outside the
gate they close after dusk so just be sure your back or run the risk of lock in.
More Info:
Extra Photos:
- Scott
