Take a Walk: Marymoor Park
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Location: Redmond.
Length: About two miles.
Level of difficulty: Level paved path leads to a raised boardwalk, then to a dirt/gravel trail that loops back along the river to the park's main entrance.
Setting: Archaeological research in and just outside the park has uncovered artifacts including stone tools used for hunting and fishing, which indicates that native peoples have used this area for at least the past 11,000 years. The now shallow, straightened Sammamish River, once full of meanders, boats and logging debris, was the main avenue of transportation in the area until building of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1916-17 lowered the waters of Lake Washington more than eight feet.
Highlights: The small mansion that currently houses the Marymoor Museum was built in the early part of the 20th century as a hunting retreat called "Willowmoor." The name was changed to "Marymoor" in the 1940s, when the park area was a dairy farm.
The park's many habitats, such as riparian, marsh, forest and meadow, attract more than 150 species of birds. For best viewing, come early on weekends to avoid the hordes of dogs that frequent the off-leash area along the middle of the trail.
For more information, or to sign up for a free quarterly newsletter listing nature walks or classes, call King County Parks at 206-296-4171. Check out plant and bird lists for the park at www.scn.org/rec/fomp.
Facilities: Restrooms, water fountains and picnic tables throughout the park.
Restrictions: No bikes on paved nature trail. Pet leash and scoop laws are in effect outside the off-leash dog area.
Directions: From eastbound Highway 520 at Redmond, take the West Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast exit. Turn right at the bottom of the exit ramp, then turn left at the next stoplight into the park. Access the river nature trail from behind the windmill, from the off-leash-area parking lot, or from the nature-trail parking lot (where the trailhead for the paved portion of the trail is located).
Cathy McDonald is coauthor with Stephen Whitney of "Nature Walks In and Around Seattle," with photographs by James Hendrickson (The Mountaineers, second edition, 1997).