Had some shopping to do in Bellingham, so I made a point first of hiking first to Fragrance Lake via the west Chuckanut access; thus completing pretty much everything the Chuckanut area has to offer.
This hike was the easiest of the bunch with it being a 5 mile return including the loop around the lake, taking all of about 90 minutes to complete. The trailhead is across from the Larrabee State park entrance. You need a forest pass to park here.


Nice forested hike up along an easy grade

After 2.1 miles you reach the lake. There's a good .8 mile trail around the lake


It began to spit rain a bit on my way back, but I fought off the rain gods with the power of my umbrella that still has yet to touch rain

Dang, that's some umbrella !

LOL…nice

You can park for free a little ways south of the rangers cabin south of where the parking lot is that you used. Little pullout i've used in the past. Ranger pointed it out to me. Might be something to do with the county line just south of the park.

And there's much more to the Chuckanuts than Fragrance Lake! More even than Larrabee SP.
By the way did you go on the viewpoint trail to the overlook of Bellingham Bay? Million $ view! It's on a short spur trail on the way back from Fragrance.

I've been in this area many times and have yet to hike all the good trails.
For details of what's there see this excellent map (2013):
Chuckanut Recreation Area, Square One Maps. www.squareonemaps.com
The REI store in Sehome Village, Exit 252, sells it.

I was going to check out the viewpoint but the cloud cover was quite low. Good to know about the free parking to the south, but I always have the Northwest Forest pass anyway. As for the rest of the Chuckanut, I've hiked about 35 miles of trails in there over the past couple months. It really is a great play area or lower level shoulder season hiking.

is for the national forests.

For state parks you need the Discover Pass. http://www.discoverpass.wa.gov/

NW Forest pass works either way.

I assumed you have visited several times, thus making comment of having finished the loops and offers available. Thanks for posting.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r6/pas...fsbdev2_027010

If you have been using the NW Forest Pass in state parks, then any rangers, etc. who checked your pass decided that it was not worth the trouble of ticketing you if you had a BC plate.

Hmm I've been using this pass since 2011 and never had a problem. Maybe just luck

Luck, and a BC plate, are your friends in this situation. I've read, and been told by rangers, that vehicles from Canada have to have the Discover pass in WA state parks.

Reports on NWHikers forum suggest some serious problems have happened to those without the Discover pass on their vehicle. Like this thread reporting a $99 ticket:
http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8009805