Saltwater State Park
Encyclopedia
Saltwater State Park is a 87.4 acre (0.353695564 km²) plot of second-growth timber on Puget Sound
in the City of Des Moines, Washington
, United States
halfway between Seattle and Tacoma. The main attraction is 1445 feet (440.4 m) of saltwater beachfront, including a sandy swimming beach in the southwest corner, and rocky tideflats along the west with a submerged artificial reef that is popular with scuba divers
. A forty-person group camp looks down on the beach from a high bluff.
Overlooked by most visitors is the steep ravine of McSorley (formerly Smith) Creek which winds inland in a gentle "S" curve joined by three tributary streams. Fifty-two campsites are situated on a road that parallels the creek, serving the public on a first-come-first-served basis. On both the north and south sides of the ravine there is a network of hiking trails which follow up the side creeks, rise through jungles of stinging nettle
s, skirt the edges of cliffs and ridges, and cross wooded plateaus.
Marine View Drive passes over the park on a 200 feet (61 m) high bridge, and 16th Avenue S crosses two branches of McSorley Creek to form the eastern boundary. One trail rises between the two branches of the creek to exit the park, while another trail continues from the dead-end of the campground service road a short way east of 16th Ave. along the main branch of the creek, informally extending the park.
The Redondo turn point for jets approaching SeaTac Airport is just to the south, so the park is rather noisy, but Saltwater remains the most-used State Park in the Puget Sound region with an average of 750,000 visitors a year.
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in the City of Des Moines, Washington
Des Moines, Washington
Des Moines is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 29,673 at the 2010 census. Property within the city has been the subject of land buyouts because of noise from aircraft landing or taking off from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport two miles to the north of...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
halfway between Seattle and Tacoma. The main attraction is 1445 feet (440.4 m) of saltwater beachfront, including a sandy swimming beach in the southwest corner, and rocky tideflats along the west with a submerged artificial reef that is popular with scuba divers
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
. A forty-person group camp looks down on the beach from a high bluff.
Overlooked by most visitors is the steep ravine of McSorley (formerly Smith) Creek which winds inland in a gentle "S" curve joined by three tributary streams. Fifty-two campsites are situated on a road that parallels the creek, serving the public on a first-come-first-served basis. On both the north and south sides of the ravine there is a network of hiking trails which follow up the side creeks, rise through jungles of stinging nettle
Stinging nettle
Stinging nettle or common nettle, Urtica dioica, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant, native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America, and is the best-known member of the nettle genus Urtica...
s, skirt the edges of cliffs and ridges, and cross wooded plateaus.
Marine View Drive passes over the park on a 200 feet (61 m) high bridge, and 16th Avenue S crosses two branches of McSorley Creek to form the eastern boundary. One trail rises between the two branches of the creek to exit the park, while another trail continues from the dead-end of the campground service road a short way east of 16th Ave. along the main branch of the creek, informally extending the park.
The Redondo turn point for jets approaching SeaTac Airport is just to the south, so the park is rather noisy, but Saltwater remains the most-used State Park in the Puget Sound region with an average of 750,000 visitors a year.