recreation around Seattle

[the dufferz]

With all of the natural beauty in and around seattle, there are tons of stuff to do. Here is a short list of things I like to do. Hopefully others will add to the list

Biking, lots of areas, but the burke gilman trail that goes between Seattle and Lake Sammamish is level (old railroad track) and easy to do.

Hiking. My favorite is a 3 mile hike (ok, ok, I'm old) like to snow lake, Alpental. This is at the summit of snoqualmie pass, park in the alpental ski resort. The hike takes you to a alpine lake. at one point on the trail you can veer off to source lake, the best kept secret of the trail. This ends up at a place where the original trail was covered by a huge rock slide. there is a stream that runs down the hill to a small lake (more like pond). The view is spectacular from here. I make this my destination, and don't even bother going to Snow Lake.

Lake Tapps, Sumner. Man made lake that was a water source for for a power plant. there is a public beach (pay to get in). The lake is awesome for jet-ski or boating.

Any other favorites?

[Plato]

Discovery Park .... you can wander around many places, wooded, long trails down to the beach, hang out by the Injun center and watch the pretty ships in ****shole Bay. At night you can illegally camp, and then fight off hordes of giant mutant raccoons who have smelled the beer and soy sauce chicken from Chinatown on your clothes and breath. Oh, you don't really have to fight them, just throw some sticks at them.

I always liked wandering through the Issaquah Alps also. They have a little creek there with supposedly quite an impressive salmon run during the season.

Snoqualmie Falls is out a bit further, and can hold your attention for at least ten minutes. Every time I've been there, there were cute college girls who are also interesting. But there are more of them out by Alki Beach, I suppose there must be some good bars although it was all a bit too rich for my taste. They don't call them bars in Washington, do they? Isn't it all legally either taverns or cocktail lounges? Hard for this old drifter to remember all the different rules and conventions in various states.

Then you can also take the ferry, and that opens up all sorts of possibilities like Port Townsend and the San Juan islands.

[the dufferz]

Originally Posted by Plato

Discovery Park .... you can wander around many places, wooded, long trails down to the beach, hang out by the Injun center and watch the pretty ships in ****shole Bay. At night you can illegally camp, and then fight off hordes of giant mutant raccoons who have smelled the beer and soy sauce chicken from Chinatown on your clothes and breath. Oh, you don't really have to fight them, just throw some sticks at them.

The operative word being "long" trails. getting there is one thing, getting back another.

[MyAzi]

I would love to do some hiking this summer but I need to find a hiking buddy.

[Plato]

Well, MyAzi, if you're wandering around Discovery Park, look for the really big guy with thick glasses and camouflage toga, the one everyone is complaining about - I'll be glad to show you the sights.

The operative word being "long" trails. getting there is one thing, getting back another.

Oh, there are fairly level circular walks too. Not all of the goodies need be accessed through steep trails.

[MyAzi]

Originally Posted by Plato

Well, MyAzi, if you're wandering around Discovery Park, look for the really big guy with thick glasses and camouflage toga, the one everyone is complaining about - I'll be glad to show you the sights.

Yeah somehow I think if I ran across that guy I would be more inclined to run the other way...However now that I know it will be you... I may take you up on it!

[jabm67]

In the north part of Seattle proper:

Go to the U of W campus, behind Husky Stadium, and rent a canoe. Paddle around in Lake Washington, in particular in the wetlands of the Arboretum across Montlake Cut from campus. You can feed the waterfowl, if you want.

If you don't want to paddle, get to the Arboretum by land and walk around. Highly recommended in May, rhododendron time. There is also a top-flight Japanese formal garden there, but that costs money to get in.

And if you've any interest in bird life, take your binoculars and field guide, park near the Center for Urban Horticulture (the eastern extreme of the UW campus), and go into the old Montlake Fill area.

Carkeek Park has a couple of entry points for foot traffic, besides the main road; one is immediately north of the schoolyard for Viewlands Elementary. Another is a posted entry point, across the street north of the QFC which used to be Art's. Both of those are good for walks in the forest. Carkeek also has a sand beach.

Woodland Park Zoo. If you think you'll be there even twice in a year, pony up for a membership the first time.

Walk the length of Ravenna Park and back. You can park at either end; the uphill/west end is called Cowen Park.

[jabm67]

At several beaches, at low tides, sometimes on weekends and in summer there are naturalists present to help show you the neat stuff living in the tide zones. You can get tide predictions from a number of places; I use http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/. The beaches at Golden Gardens, Carkeek Park, and the little pocket park immediately adjacent to the Edmonds Ferry Terminal are all places where I've taken my kids for this. At Edmonds at extreme low tides (below -1 or so) you can go under the terminal wharf itself and see all sorts of stuff on and around the pilings.

[Plato]

Are any of those beaches clean enough to gather and eat mussels or geoducks or whatever, Jabm? I miss fresh mussel briefly cooked in the shell, I used to gather them in Santa Cruz.

[jabm67]

I don't know. I don't think I've seen anyone doing any obvious fishing/clamming/etc. on those beaches, but there could be several reasons for that. At least a couple of them are designated as conservation areas (e.g., there's a salmon hatchery in Carkeek Park behind the beach, so fishing there is restricted for obvious reasons). The best place to look for that is at the Fish & Wildlife Department, http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/mpa/puget_sound/

[jabm67]

BTW, the area I mentioned next to the Edmonds Ferry Terminal is a park, Brackett's Landing. (You can find more information about it on the Fish & Wildlife site linked above, clicking on the Brackett's Landing points on the map or area list.) It includes an area set aside specifically for SCUBA diving, and I see lots of divers there ... there's a changing area, showers, etc., on the park a stone's throw from the ferry terminal.