Key Central Forest Hike

Yesterday Gabby & Ethan came down and the 4 of us headed across the Narrows bridge to Key Central Forest which is only 30 minutes west from here.  The turn off area from the main road had a small parking lot with a map.  There are two different loops you can hike that are separated by two bridges which cross Vaughn Creek.  We decided to hike the NW loop then head to the bridges.  Somehow, we managed to get turned around a bit (not a lot of signage), but we finally found the bridges where we paused for photos then headed back to the parking lot, clocking in at 1 hour 43 minutes and 3.91 miles.  I really liked the area, and we are planning to come back again with the pups in tow.  We are excited to explore more of Gig Harbor and the surrounding area now that we are so close by.

Checking out the map & deciding on a route.

Bridge #1.  No real water under the bridges as it's been so dry.

Bridge #2. When we got here a guy was walking by and he was nice enough to take a photo of our group. 

Key Central Forest Hike

We finally made it back to Key Central Forest yesterday morning after talking about it for over a year! The last time we were HERE, it was sans puppies, so this time we brought them along.  We headed out around 10:15am and the fog was still around, making the trail feel a bit eerie.  The fog seemed to keep folks away, though, which was super nice as we only ran into a couple people the entire time we were there. We followed the main trail to the two bridges, which we crossed, before turning around. On the way back we turned right onto a different trail and were able to let the puppies off leash.  It's been a while since they've gotten to run in the woods, so that was a lot of fun for them. In all we hiked 2.86 miles with an elevation gain of 313 feet in 1:06:57.  I hope we can get back there before another year goes by!

Bridge #1

Bridge #2

Off leash time! The pups were running towards me. You can see Harvey's ears have flopped up!

Yoh! Hike at Key Central Forest

Teresa, Scott and I hiked at Key Central Forest this morning with all 5 of the dogs. It was a little nuts at times, but everyone got along and enjoyed some off-leash time together. This was our third time there, but the first time for Teresa. She found a bunch of chanterelle mushrooms which was very unexpected for this time of year. All the dogs loved barreling through the puddles on the trail except for Rosie who doesn’t like getting wet. In all we hiked 3.15 miles. Luckily it was dry for our first Yoh! hike of 2025.

We did both the northwest and southwest loops.