Sehome Hill

November 17, 2022

189m

Bellingham, WA

Sehome Hill locates in the middle of the city of Bellingham but it has an official name and boasts over 100 m prominence so by any measure it counts as a peak. I had been saving this summit for a day when I’m lacking energy, time or motivation and this happened to be the exact case on this Thursday. Thank to the commitments at home I could only manage to get out for a couple hours in the morning. The weather on the other hand, was too good to be wasted so I needed to get out and do something.

I didn’t bother to wake up until 8 am, and subsequently didn’t get out of the bed until 8:30 am after wasting more time on the phone. But once getting up I managed to be efficient and left home in no time. The border crossing was trivial with the NEXUS card so the drive to Bellingham only took me under 40 minutes. The crux of Sehome Hill was to find a parking spot. I did not do any research asides studying the Gaia map so discovered the “parking lot” marked on the map actually needed to be paid. I refused to pay for parking by principle so I drove around and parked on the side of the street. I had to park a bit of ways away from the actual trail-head as anywhere closer was either “private” or already occupied by other cars.

Sehome Hill urban walk from north slopes. GPX DL

The trail I opted to take originates from the north side and after a short while I merged onto a paved (but supposed to be gated) road. I then easily followed this road to just under the observation tower. Instead of doing more roundabout circumnavigation I dived into the woods and thrashed directly to the tower. The view from this tower was not as open as I was hoping for, but at least better than “nothing”. I then walked to the true summit near the tourist’s parking lot. The true summit on the other hand, offers absolutely no view whatsoever.

From where I parked looking upwards towards the trail-head
I literally parked on the street beside these houses
Looking back from the actual trail-head
Into the forest I went…
As typical as the first stage of this trail system
After a while I joined a paved road
As much as the views down towards Bellingham from the lookout tower
The best view from Sehome Hill is towards Bellingham Harbour
From the tower level of this lookout tower.
Me with the lookout tower behind. This isn’t the summit
Hiking towards the true summit I encountered this “Tunnel through Time”
A view from inside Tunnel Through Time
Me on the true summit of Sehome Hill

To return I opted to take some different paths for variety. I mostly stayed on the road and/or the most obvious trail and my round trip time was just under 40 minutes. I immediately turned on the engine and got home in another 40 minutes. Overall there was nothing worth to recommend about this hike but it’s better than staying home.

As typical as the view from the descent…