Carkeek Park

So it seems fitting that now that I’m blogging again and in a new area with so much to explore, that I should write about it, so this will hopefully be my first post of many more to come.

Today on mother’s day we were running too late for church, thanks to Matt’s yummy pancakes. We decided to find God somewhere else. The weather was cloudy and seemed like it could go either way, but the weather channel said 30% chance of rain, so outdoors it was. We chose a spot out of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles and headed out, wasting little time packing, knowing we had the essentials in the van. Carkeek is located in Northwest Seattle on Puget Sound, north of Golden Gardens. We had a great experience – I’d give it 4.5 stars.

We arrived near a grassy field and could see lots and lots of picnic tables (this would be a great spot for a birthday party!) with grills. Sam was intrigued by the families playing soccer, so we got our ball out and played our own game, which he loved! We then headed to the playground, which was designed to represent the sound. Sam loved climbing into the mouth of the salmon slide and sliding down.

We then headed onto the North Ridge trail. It was a nice wooded trail with many interesting tree trunks, ferns, and a decent incline. There were several lookout points from which you could look through the treeline onto the train tracks way down below which run along the Puget sound beach. Luckily, we had a clear day and the views were great while the trails were mostly quiet. Sam was able to hike them easily.

There were many spurs off of the trail, but we stuck to the main path which took us all the way up to a grassy meadow, seemingly in someone’s backyard, where Sam enjoyed resting and blowing dandelion seeds. We descended down another path and back toward the playground, from which we headed to the beach.

Across the parking lot was a bridge to the beach which crossed the railroad tracks. We watched as a train went right below us, a large freight train. We were right in the thick of of it’s loud whistle and smoke, looking down onto the tops of its many cars. We then descended to the beach. There was a makeshift giant see-saw made by a large driftwood tree trunk. The beach was a cross between a rocky beach and a sandy beach, but not well representative of either. It is possible to walk the entire shore, all the way to Golden Gardens, which woud be fun to try someday. The boats were out today, but at a distance. Bainbridge was directly across, but the Olympics were hiding in distant clouds. Once across the bridge, the beach was pretty evenly and gradually sloped toward the water which was at low tide.

I hadn’t experienced low tide, or payed much attention to the tides, in my beach experiences yet, so this was my first chance to explore tide pools. Apparently at times you can see anemone, starfish, and other sea life in these tide pools. What we were able to see today were clam shells, seaweed, and tiny little crabs. There were also, in Matt’s words, a couple of mysterious jets of water shooting from from the sand. It would have been a fantastic trip for rain boots and magnifying glasses. The paths that the tide water created through the sand were interesting to me. It was definitely more of a look at little creatures beach than throw rocks in the water beach, but great fun, and something we hadn’t seen yet. I like low tide. In fact, I’m going to have to explore and see if there’s an app for tides.

Anyway, after passing some time on the beach, we decided it was time for lunch, which we didn’t pack, and we headed to the van. We watched another train go by, this time from half-way up the steps to the bridge, pretty much at eye-level. At the meadow by the van was a guy set up and putting on bubble demonstrations. We sat on my new mother’s day gift, a waterproof picnic blanket, and watched the biggest bubble we’ve ever seen float up to the tops of evergreens.

After that we packed it up and headed home happy. This park had a lot to offer – open field, picnic and grilling space, an interesting playground, hiking, trains, and a beach for exploring plants and little creatures. It also had a trail by Piper creek that we didn’t explore, but it looked very nice as well. I think this would be a great variety or compromise park – has a lot of options. Great for an indecisive day!