Never Mind About the Rain, Just Walk

The Pacific Northwest’s primary colors--green, gray and blue--are Seattle’s colors. Green is the bountiful evergreen forest on the city’s edge. Gray is the sky; the city’s rainy weather, ranging in intensity from mists to monsoons, is infamous. Blue waters surround the “Emerald City,” which occupies a narrow strip between Puget Sound and 18-mile-long Lake Washington.

The rain contributes to the clean and green lifestyle of Seattle’s citizens, a way of life that’s a source of civic pride. It’s not so much the sheer volume of rain (annual precipitation is often less than 60 inches and averages a surprisingly low 36.2 inches), it’s the number of rainy days: Measurable rainfall is recorded 150 to 180 days a year.

The frequent rains slow, but by no means stop, local hikers from enjoying a walk along the beaches and bluffs at the edge of the city. I’ve enjoyed several rainy-day jaunts on Seattle’s edge and met a number of cheerful locals on the trail, particularly in Discovery Park, Seattle’s largest, and Carkeek Park just north of the city. Temperatures are moderate in this region. Winter daytime temperatures are in the high 40s and low 50s, so ice picks aren’t necessary.

Semi-wild, 535-acre Discovery Park is laced with an extensive network of beach and bluff-top trails. Strategically located between the city’s suburban edge and Puget Sound, it is a sanctuary of meadows and second-growth forest.

In 1792, Puget Sound explorer Capt. George Vancouver sailed by in his vessel Discovery, from which the park takes its name. A century later, the U.S. Army established Ft. Lawton, a small reservation with military housing and a parade ground. Seattle’s sewers arrived soon after the soldiers, and even today the park’s sights are interrupted by the West Point Sewage Treatment Plant.

Discovery Park Nature Trail is a 2.8-mile loop, circling past all park entrances and intersecting the park’s many side trails and beach access routes. On your bluff-top tour you’ll wander past Army housing and a Native American cultural center (Daybreak Star Arts Center) and intersect a couple of half-mile-long side trails that lead down to the beach: South Beach Trail, North Beach Trail, West Point Trail.

The nature trail offers excellent views of Puget Sound and the distant Olympic range. Keen-eyed hikers may spot seals, sea lions and porpoises off park shores.

Begin your tour (most travel in a counterclockwise direction) from the park visitor center or from the parking area at North Gate.

Access: From downtown, head north on 15th Avenue to Dravus Street. Turn west and drive half a mile to 20th Avenue West. Turn right and enter Discovery Park. Stop at the visitor center to pick up a trail map.

Bus service to Discovery Park includes the No. 19 to South Gate and Nos. 24 and 33 buses to East Gate.

Carkeek Park

North Seattle’s Carkeek Park is a fine assemblage of beach and bluff that offers a variety of easy walking routes. Most of the bluff paths offer superb vistas of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.

Even when Seattle is fogbound and viewless, the park is well worth a visit to see the salmon. Chub salmon can be seen from several observation points along Piper’s Creek throughout the year.

Piper’s Creek Trail (two miles round trip) ascends from the shoreline through a lush canyon, crisscrossing Piper’s Creek several times. As the canyon narrows, choose any of several return paths looping through the woods to the south of the canyon. Back at the bluffs high above the beach and railroad tracks, enjoy excellent bay views.

Intrepid beach walkers can hike from Carkeek Park to Richmond Beach Park, 4.5 miles north. (If the tide’s too high for safe beach walking, hikers can retreat atop a sea wall.) Half a mile out is isolated Whiskey Cove, where smugglers landed their cargo during Prohibition.

The beach path passes some wild bluffs cut by creeks cascading toward shore and continues under sometimes-visible, sometimes-not residences to Richmond Beach, the former quarry site of the Richmond Beach Sand and Gravel Co.

Access: From downtown Seattle, head north on Elliott Avenue, continuing on as it becomes 15th Avenue West and takes you over the Ballard Bridge. Bearing east, the avenue becomes Holman Road Northwest. Continue to Third Avenue Northwest and turn right. Turn left on Northwest 110th Street, which becomes Carkeek Park Drive and leads to two parking lots and the trail heads in Carkeek Park.

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Discovery Park and Carkeek Park Trails

WHERE: Discovery Park, Carkeek Park.

DISTANCE: Discovery Park Nature Loop is 2.8 miles; walks through Carkeek Park are 2 to 3 miles round trip.

TERRAIN: Beaches and bluffs of Puget Sound.

HIGHLIGHTS: Great rainy-day walking, grand, clear-day views of Puget Sound.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Easy.

PRECAUTIONS: Dress warmly, use your best rain gear.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau; tel. (206) 461-5800; Seattle Parks Department Recreation Information Office; tel. (206) 684-4075.