Hibbs Cemetery, North Bend SP

During a week in mid-February, I was at a quilt retreat at North Bend State Park.  Luckily, the weather allowed a little hiking in between snow storms.  On Feb. 18, one of my quilting buddies, Nanny, and I hiked the Hibbs Cemetery/Nature Trail loop.  Total distance was about 2 miles.  The day was the warmest of the week, nearing 50 degrees.

The Hibbs Cemetery Trail begins right behind the North Bend Lodge.  It immediately goes up and does a little up and down.  This wouldn't have been a problem except for two things: first the ground was pretty muddy and slippery, and second, there were a lot of trees, branches, etc. blocking the trail, making it necessary to do quite a bit of scrambling, and this on muddy, slippery ground.  However,  after the initial rough going, we reached the top of the ridge, and then the debris was not as bad.

We were rewarded with some fantastic rock formations, not to mention the peace of being outdoors in the the clean, clear air.  The trail was mostly through woods, and there wasn't any view to speak of, but this walk in the woods was lovely in its own way.

The trail, according to the map, goes by the cemetery of an early pioneer family in the area.  We reached the end of the trail and saw nothing.  Sure that we had just been too busy gabbing to notice, we turned around to look again.  About where we guessed it should be, sure enough there was the sign for the cemetery, but it was lying face down on the ground.  We propped it against a tree and searched in vain for headstones.  There were none.  Asking the ranger afterwards, we learned that there are no headstones, the cemetery is just that flat piece of ground. 

On the way back, we took a section of the Nature Trail and got to see new sights.  It ended at the road to the lodge, and as we were walking back, we saw some horsemen getting ready for a ride on the trail.