Discovery Park

Discovery Park
Categories: Parks, Beaches
Neighborhood: Magnolia
7/20/2009 3 photos
I strongly urge visitors that go on the foot trails of Discovery Park to wear appropriate footwear--meaning no sandals--as I seriously injured my right foot in mid-September. These trails are not always very well maintained, and one small boulder, tree stump or root, uneven step can really set you back weeks--in pain, discomfort, and physical therapy.

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It's difficult to find a place to be alone, period, in Seattle, especially as urban density crowds us all into increasingly cramped spaces. Neighbors above, below, on-the-the-other-side-of-the wall.

But Discovery Park comes close to being that: rolling, expansive meadows of wildflowers and tall grasses, a monumental bluff overlooking Puget Sound and a beach below, lighthouse, forests, yellow clapboard houses worthy of an Edward Hopper painting (including a church).

Crisscrossing the meadows, dotted with bright yellow dandelions in the dry summer, one is transported into a Monet painting of a field of poppies.

Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Bigleaf maples, wild roses, pine, oak, Himalayan blackberry, Scotch broom, cottonwood, red alder, and salal--in other words, many of more representative local species of fauna and flora--can all be found here. I even sighted my first woodpecker here.

In summer, the sight of a nonstop line of visitors walking along the South Bluff is reminiscent of a phalanx of ants advancing steadily towards a trail of bread crumbs. Yes, you will encounter people in color-coordinated athletic wear, yammering on their cellphones and oblivious to the endangered majestic beauty around them.

Unfortunately, as well, are the huge swathes of Army and Navy (remnants of the original Fort Lawton) compounds mixed in. And a huge ugly concrete bunker, the Daybreak Cultural Center, sometimes rented out for weddings.

The 2.8 mile Loop Trail, as its name suggests, will leave those of us with an underdeveloped sense of direction, walking around in ovals and ellipses with no idea of where we are.

The foot trail that leads from the Loop Trail down the north slope to the North Beach descends steeply. It was here that I twisted 120 degrees--and in doing so seriously sprained my right foot on one of the partially missing wooden steps.

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I would highly recommend joining the Friends of Discovery Park, a non-profit organization which has been fighting for years to preserve the natural habitat in all its tranquility.

They and Historic Seattle have been trying to buy the historic houses--dating from the early-mid 20th century--instead of having them sold to developers to put up condos.

http://www.friendsdisc...
http://www.seattle.gov...