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Boeing Creek Park

Welcome to my first installment of what I hope to be a weekly (or at least regular) series of posts!  As part of our nature time, I thought it would be fun to try to visit a different park each week near our home in North Seattle.  We are blessed with so many wonderful parks that it should take us quite some time before we could exhaust them all.

Today, we visited Boeing Creek Park in Shoreline.  This park is adjacent to Shoreview Park, but it's separate entrance and walking distance makes it feel completely alone.


Almost as soon as we got out of the car the boys were off running.  We had a near collision with a cross-country team from a local high school which only made Buddy think that running was so cool.  He wanted to run just like them and was fascinated by the new word he learned: "runner."  He wanted to be a "runner" too, and used this new word as many times as possible while we were there.


The park has a storm water detention facility in the middle which makes for a nice, tidy loop for small kids.



However, this loop is also well-loved by the cross-country runners, so we decided to take the trail down to Hidden Lake.


The first part of this new trail was very easy.  I really thought that .4 miles would be simple.


Saw traces of a woodpecker
But, it's not as simple as it seems!  Once you get to this sign, you need to decide to forge ahead or turn around.



First we came to the stepping stones.  I believe that the water was probably pretty low right now.  We're just coming off some of our more warmer weather so this might be higher in later months.  I ended up carrying the boys across one at a time since we didn't have our rainboots on, and I didn't want them to get wet.


Button waiting for me to come back and get him.
The entire hike was beautiful.  From here until the lake, we followed the creek.  I love the sound of the water flowing especially as it goes over the mini-waterfalls.


The terrain here though became more rugged.  The trail was very narrow and just dropped off into the creek sometime as high up as five feet.  This wouldn't be a big deal with older children, but doing this alone with a 3 1/2 and 2 year old was a little scary.  They, on the other hand, were fearless.  They could have cared less that the trail was tiny.  I was glad that the creek didn't have more water in it (again, probably because of the time of year).



Finally, though, we had success!  We made it to Hidden Lake!


We found a sandy place to sit down and admire the ducks.  They thought we had food, so they were very friendly.  Not that we needed it, but we pulled out our bird guide and found our female Mallards.




On the way back, we had a treat.  We are having a late season for blackberries!


Button and I were pretty tired after we got back to the pond loop.  Buddy, on the other hand, seemed to have plenty of energy.  We ran into some friends there which probably helped!  It was a fun afternoon trip.


Some other things you might want to know...

  • Bathrooms? 
    • No.  There are some over on the other side of the park (also known as Shoreview Park), but if you park on the Boeing Creek side, you are about a mile or so away from the nearest bathroom.
  • Playground?
    • No.  Shoreview Park has some on the other side though.
  • Parking?
    • Free street parking on only one side of the road.  This was a little difficult since I was coming from the opposite direction.
  • Need Rainboots?
    • Yes!  Even on a beautiful sunny day like today, there are still a lot of puddles if you plan on doing some hiking.  It would have been nice to have the rainboots today as we could have sploshed around the creek some.
  • Special Interest?
    • The Hidden Lake is beautiful.  It's definitely a hike, especially with young kids, but worth it.
  • Would I come here again?  
    • Absolutely!  We didn't see nearly enough of the park.  Although next time, I'd like to bring my husband along to help us with some of the steep areas.  My kids were never in serious danger, but it would have eased mommy's mind some to have an extra pair of hands.
For more info about Boeing Creek Park:
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