Yudwasta -- Big Rock in the heart
- skagitjack
- Mar 25
- 7 min read
Before it was Big Rock, it was Yudwasta.
Legend has it that there was a woman who lived in the land of the stars with her husband. But she needed to flee her unhappy marriage. Her older sister helped her escape to Earth by lowering her on a rope through a hole in the sky.
When she got to Earth, the older sister dropped the rope. Its coils formed the rock Yudwasta, which means, “in the heart.”
The woman later gave birth to a son, Star Child, who would grow up to light the world at night. *
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A six and a half minute video can be found here:
Come enjoy our walk with us!
Monday morning, a quiet, hazy day. Last week, Skagit County Parks held a grand opening ribbon-cutting for Big Rock County Park. Kath and I had been there a couple of years earlier for a preview hosted by Parks and the Skagit Land Trust to encourage us all to support the acquisition of this special place. Back then, the trail ascended through a clear-cut, and then up steep and slippery rocky slopes to climb to the summit.
Thanks to hundreds of donors, the Skagit Land Trust, a large state grant and other special funds, and the support of the Upper Skagit Tribe, Skagit County Parks purchased much of the land surrounding Big Rock, preserving it for future generations.
We really wanted to see what volunteers of the Washington Trails Association had recently done to improve the trails, allowing it to be open to the public. We also wanted to experience the stunning beauty and sacred majesty of this unusual outcropping right on the eastern edge of the bustling city of Mt. Vernon.
The current parking area is small and primitive, with a new parking area being planned. We hopped out of our truck and began walking up the gravel roadway that leads to the rock. Sunlight beamed down upon us. This early spring has been cool, but a light jacket was all we needed.
A large wetland could be seen to the northwest through bare branches, and then we heard them: yes, Pacific Chorus frogs, in full chorus! What a joyful, boisterous welcome.
We had gone about halfway up when the rock came into view, rising high above.
Then Kath whispered, “Stop.” I stopped. She pointed to our left, to a tall pile of debris left over from the logging days. It took me a second or two to see it. Then it stood up. Then it turned its back to us, and spread its wings — airing and warming itself in the morning sunshine, a large turkey vulture, standing there motionless, aware of us but unconcerned.
Its partner stood nearby. We stood in silence, hardly twenty feet away, watching it in awe and amazement.
A mom and her young daughter had just hiked down from Big Rock and stood quietly with us. The mom said that the birds had been there when they had walked up a half hour earlier.
Our hike was just beginning, and I felt like we had already filled our amazement bucket.
On we walked, past the “Director’s Chair”, a viewpoint bench honoring the work of Skagit County Parks director Brian Adams for his leadership in helping make this park a reality.
Then began the final climb, a quarter mile of walking up the south side of Big Rock, now made much easier by the construction of heavy-duty stairway frames with gravel steps, and rock stairways cut into the big rock itself. The former slippery slopes have been transformed into an attractive and accommodating trail up the mountain.
The view gets better with each step. Soon we turned the final corner and reached the top plateau — and stood there on top, stunned by the view and majesty of this peak.
Floodwaters shimmered to the south, with Big Lake barely visible beyond. To the northeast, Baker stood in its white winter glory. Farms, fields, and forests filled the landscape below. To the west, literally just twelve hundred feet away as the vulture flies, hundreds of homes filled the hillside. We are truly right on the edge of town, which may swallow the surrounding fields below in the decades to come.
We soaked in the sun, serenity, and scenery for some time before finally turning our backs to Baker and going back down the trail.
We passed a couple of birders starting up the final ascent. They asked if we had seen the turkey vultures, which they had seen taking flight just as they got to the slash pile where we had seen them. Together we watched wrens and creepers, robins and bluejays flittering all around us.
We stopped once more at the Director’s Chair, then walked back down the gravel road, still listening to the chorus of frogs that had serenaded us all the way up. A couple of other folks passed us near the bottom, including a man who had been a part of the trail-building process. We thanked him and wished them all well as they began their journey to the top, their adventure of discovery just beginning in this amazing new Skagit park wonderland.
Yudwasta is far more than a scenic destination; it is a place of deep cultural significance to the Upper Skagit Indian tribe. The surrounding landscape has been part of the tribe’s ancestral homeland, holding stories, teachings, and connections that reach back long before formal park designation.
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* [Source: former Swinomish Chief Martin J. Sampson in his 1972 book, “Indians of Skagit County.” Credited by Cascadia Daily News]
For Further Reading and viewing:
The Upper Skagit people are descendants of aboriginal bands that inhabited 11 villages from the foothills of the Cascades to the Salish Sea. The Upper Skagit Reservation lies in the uplands of the Skagit River Valley, east of Sedro-Woolley in Skagit County and just north of Burlington near Alger.
Flowing more than 125 miles from glaciers in the Canadian Cascade Mountains, through old-growth forests and farmlands to Skagit Bay, the Skagit River is western Washington’s largest river. It is one of the few rivers that sustain all five of the original wild salmon species: Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink, and Sockeye.
What is now known as northwest Washington state was home to several Native American tribes known as Coast Salish, which comprised two linguistic groups: the Straits, including the Clallam, Lummi, Samish, and Semiahmoo tribes; and the Lushootseed, including the Tulalip Tribes, Lummi, Swinomish, and Upper Skagit. The rivers and the sea sustained the culture that inhabited the area, and the tribes flourished, thanks to the bounty of such natural resources as salmon, shellfish, sea mammals, upland game, camas root, and cedar trees.
The story of Yudwasta reflects a profound connection between the people, the land, and the cosmos. The rock remains a sacred site, symbolizing ancestral presence and continuity.
Some recent background:
Dr. Richard Hoag, former owner of the rock and some surrounding property, wanted that scenery shared with the public after he was gone. Shortly before he died in 1996, he arranged for nearly 14 acres of the property east of Mount Vernon, including the rock, to go to Skagit County for visitors to enjoy.
[The surname, Hoag, is Scottish and would have originally been pronounced in two syllables: Hoe-ag. Say that fast and the syllables blend into one (rhyming with “boyg”). Ditto for Hoag Road.]
But for more than two decades, Big Rock Park remained inaccessible to the public. An intended access point by State Route 9 had no parking, so for years, people trespassed onto the surrounding private land to get in. In 2010, the county formally closed the park.
Today, at nearly 100 acres, the park is open, fully open!
Skagit Land Trust’s description of the values of the park:
Protecting Big Rock Matters – Here’s Why
It Will Protect Native Fish & Wildlife Habitat, Forever:
Big Rock pokes up from the Skagit Valley as a rock island, hosting unique plant and wildlife communities. It is an anchor in a nine-mile-long Nookachamps Valley system of native wildlife habitat, lakes, wetlands, farms and open space that runs from Lake Creek and Big Lake to the Skagit River. The slopes and base of Big Rock that are part of this park expansion hold creeks, wetlands, rocky outcrops and regenerating native forests. They connect to the extensive valley ecosystem. The rock itself is unique – many other rock outcrops in the Nookachamps have been ground down for quarries. If protected, this land and valley ecosystem will be a green heartland, protecting and connecting native habitat as Mount Vernon grows around it.
It Secures Public Access for Trails and Viewing Areas:
Big Rock County Park has been closed to the public for years because there is no legal public access to it. It has taken decades, but we now have a chance to ensure permanent public access to an expanded Big Rock Park with a trailhead, parking, and trails for low-impact use such as hiking, photography, nature education and birding. Permanently protecting Big Rock’s adjacent forest and wetlands will provide long-desired access and allow nature to thrive as the city grows. Countless generations will be able to visit this stunning viewpoint of Mount Baker and the Nooksack. The forest will re-establish itself and become old growth one day.
50 years from now, when Mount Vernon has developed on all sides of Big Rock, an expanded park will be a rare haven for both wildlife and people.
It Is a Culturally Significant Landscape:
Big Rock is a central location in the history, stories, and traditions of the ancestors of the Coast Salish people, in particular, the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. Their ancestors include the Nook-a-chah-mish who lived in the Nookachamps River Valley. Historically Big Rock was called “Yudwasta” (of the heart). It looms large in the Legend of The Star Child. Several villages and camps were located near Big Rock. Upper Skagit Indian Tribe staff support this project and are helping with history and site interpretation to tell its important cultural history.
Connections of interest:
The Upper Skagit Tribe: https://upperskagittribe-nsn.gov/
Skagit Land Trust annual newsletter from September 2024:
Cascadia Daily News from 2025 about the plans for Big Rock:
March 2026 article in the Skagit Valley Herald announcing the opening of Big Rock Park:
Four-minute video by Skagit Land Trust from 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWoAI5lqm8w
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