Totem Lake Wetlands

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Location: Kirkland.

Trail length: About a quarter-mile.

Level of difficulty: Flat to gentle paved trail with boardwalks.

Setting: This 24-acre nature refuge tucked next to a shopping mall holds several open bodies of water fringed by cattail and hardhack marshes. The lake was originally named Lake Wittenmyer in the 1880s, after an early local homesteader. The name later changed to Watsine Lake, then to Totem Lake with the opening of the nearby shopping mall in 1973. The area to the south of the wetlands was known as Firloch, after a small shingle mill (where cedar logs were cut into shingles) once located on the lake's southeast shoreline.

Highlights: The paved trail undulates along the north side of the marsh, shaded by alders and big-leaf maples, and has a boardwalk spur to a large open pond. Despite its proximity to busy streets, the wetlands offers its own parallel universe full of trilling red-winged blackbirds, swimming ducks and small amphibians splashing in the shallows.

The wetlands hold runoff from local paved surfaces, filter it, and slowly release the water into a nearby stream, which flows into Juanita Creek, and then Lake Washington. Several interpretive signs along the trail (plus one on Totem Lake Boulevard at the bus stop) offer maps and glimpses into the area's history.

For more information, contact 425-828-1218.

Facilities: None.

Restrictions: Leash and scoop laws in effect.

Directions: From northbound Interstate 405, take Exit 20B and turn right on Northeast 124th Street. Get in the left lane and turn left onto Totem Lake Boulevard. After passing the wetlands, turn right onto 120th Avenue Northeast, then right onto Totem Lake Way and park along the road. Access the trail from behind the Cowboy Restaurant. From southbound 405, take Exit 20, turn left onto Northeast 124th Street, cross over the freeway and follow directions as above.

Cathy McDonald is coauthor with Stephen Whitney of "Nature Walks In and Around Seattle," with photographs by James Hendrickson (The Mountaineers, second edition, 1997).