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Lake Serene Hiking Trail, which includes trails to both Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls, will be preserved as it is thanks to a fundraising campaign by sustainability nonprofit Forterra.
Located near Index, Washington, includes a portion that’s owned by timber company Weyerhaeuser. The trail was shut down in September to prepare for logging and to make some trail improvements. The trail was set to reopen next summer, but with Weyerhaeuser’s portion logged.
This week, Forterra met its fundraising goal of $275,000 from more than 600 people to preserve the trail, and will move toward the lower part of the trail from Weyerhaeuser, who's willing to sell. The total project cost is $800,000, which includes money from the Snohomish County Conservation Futures program.
$75,000 of the fundraising money came from a couple who took their first hike together on the trail.
After Forterra acquires the land, it will be open to the public indefinitely.
Here’s what Curbed Seattle contributor Josh Cohen had to say about the trail while mapping 12 essential Seattle-area hikes:
With a towering waterfall and a gorgeous alpine lake, you get a lot of bang for your buck on the Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls hike. A little less than 2.5 miles of hiking (and about a half mile of stair climbing) gets you to Bridal Veil. The 1,328 foot waterfall cascades down in four sections. From the trail, you can see several hundred feet of waterfall skimming across the rocky cliff. Continue on from the falls to your halfway point at Lake Serene and soak in the views of Index Peak looming across the water.
The trail will still be closed for a period of time, since Weyerhaeuser will still be logging nearby land, but the closure will be shorter—it will begin when work starts this month and reopen in the late spring.
This article has been slightly corrected to accurately reflect Forterra’s move toward purchasing the land.