Marymoor: A park for all people

REDMOND -- Two red-tailed hawks circled the blue skies above Marymoor Park one recent day, seemingly unfazed by several remote-controlled model airplanes buzzing through the air not 300 yards away -- emblematic, perhaps, of a 640-acre landscape described by some as the "crown jewel" of the King County parks system.

"Sometimes on that side of the trail we'll see something fly by and raise our binoculars only to find it's one of those airplanes," says MaryFrances Mathis, who walks the park's nature trail every Wednesday with an informal group of birdwatchers.


	Between his dogs and her wards, Karl Meyer and Deborah Rubano have their hands full in the off-leash section of Marymoor Parkin Redmond. Phil H. Webber / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

By far the most popular park operated by King County, with an estimated 1.3 million annual visitors, Marymoor still supports deer, coyote, hawks, weasels and threatened wild salmon, as well as a grow ing menagerie of baseball players, rugby scrummers, soccer kids, rock climbers, bicycle racers, rowers, joggers, walkers, anglers, model airplane pilots and flying-disc flippers.

Its one square mile of land encompasses the last undeveloped stretch of shore on north Lake Sammamish, the first mile of the Sammamish River and some of the most critical habitat for native species left on the Eastside. It also hosts an unbelievably popular 40-acre off-leash dog running area smack in the middle of it, a model airplane field that is in almost constant use during daylight, an artificial climbing rock, rowing club, bicycling velodrome, tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball fields, P-patch, picnic shelters and a playground.

Centering it all is the historic Clise Mansion, which houses a museum of Eastside history, and its trademark windmill.

"It is definitely a great park," says Michael Hobbs, a member of the group Friends of Marymoor Park. "It has a place for just about everybody. It's really still a good place to go birdwatching and there is a tremendous number of sports that use facilities there: cricket, lacrosse, rugby, ultimate Frisbee, softball, soccer, bicycling. I don't think you can find anywhere else a park that has managed to come close to doing everything Marymoor does.


	A functional windmill, once used to pump river water for the historic Clise Mansion, greets visitors to the 640-acre Marymoor Park.

"The downside is that the park is just taking a tremendous beating."

If Marymoor Park is the crown jewel of King County parks -- as the Friends of Marymoor home page says -- it is one that has lost some of its luster due to shear heavy use, the need to accommodate so many activities and a woeful lack of funding.

Development of the sports fields, which generate revenue for the county, has made the area much less natural in appearance than it used to be. There are almost no interpretive signs that a park of its historic and ecological stature surely merits. A boardwalk section of the nature trail floods regularly and is in need of repair. The dogs, bless their innocent hearts, are trampling meadows and some wetlands. Native vegetation has been displaced in many areas by invasive blackberry bushes and Scotch broom.

And it's not likely the situation will improve any time soon. As you might have heard, County Executive Ron Sims recently announced that 22 parks would remain closed indefinitely because of a $50 million shortfall in the county budget.

"It's a park that could be a world-class park," Hobbs says. "If you compare it to Seattle or other places, it's haphazard and really suffers from a lack of coordinated planning and money."

Yet Marymoor remains a cool place to go for an eclectic variety of activities, as well as for its historical significance and natural attractions.


	On a brightly lit winter day, two men pass near a couple of barren trees throwing their shadows in the northeast corner of the park in Redmond.

Excavations at Marymoor in the 1960s, led by the University of Washington's Dr. Robert Greengo, showed the area was used as a seasonal camp for hunting, gathering and food processing, possibly as long as 5,000 years ago. In 1904, Seattle banker John Clise bought the area from homesteaders and built a waterfowl hunting lodge, which was later turned into a mansion and farm where exotic cattle and horses were raised. The windmill, a picturesque structure visible from West Lake Sammamish Parkway, apparently was once used to pump river water.

Probably the single most popular spot at Marymoor today is the off-leash dog area, which on any sunny Saturday or Sunday truly can be a spectacle of mass tail-wagging, ball-fetching, leg-lifting, probing-nose houndness. Across 40 acres with open fields and five river access spots nicely landscaped and maintained by the group Serve Our Dog Areas, it's one of the largest off-leash areas in Washington.

However, Marymoor has not gone entirely to the dogs. It is also a major hub in King County's network of regional trails that will gain even greater importance when two major trails are completed. Marymoor is at one end of the 11-mile Sammamish River Trail, which is connected to and is the southerly extension of the Seattle area's popular Burke-Gilman Trail.

Also converging at Marymoor is an end of the little-known Bridle Crest Trail, which drops through the Eastside suburbs from Bridle Trails State Park on Rose Hill two miles distant. At some point, these two trails will be connected to the planned East Lake Sammamish Trail, which is currently stymied by stubborn, some might say short-sighted, opposition from the city of Sammamish. Nonetheless, King County has acquired property for an East Lake Sam trailhead near Marymoor, which would be linked to the Sammamish River Trail by an extension through the park.

The city of Redmond also is building a trail system along Evans and Bear creeks, which flow into the Sammamish River near the park.

"Marymoor is already a terminus for one of the most popular trails we have, the Sammamish River Trail, and when we have the East Lake trail, it will absolutely be a big hub for regional trails," says Tom Eksten, longtime King County trails coordinator. "And then we have these other spokes, like Bridle Crest and Redmond's Bear-Evans Creek Trail."


	From left, Alec Liebman, of Redmond, and Ben Sherwood and Matthew Bunt, both from Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, climb, at 45 feet, one of the tallest free-standing climbing rocks in the nation.

When it will all be complete is uncertain. The county's suffocating budget mess could put it off. Eksten, for example, a parks employee since the 1960s, was temporarily laid off by the county last year and may be again soon. "Spending a career building up a system like this, only to watch it fall on its face, is demoralizing to say the least," he says sadly.

Nonetheless, current trail options at Marymoor are quite varied, although they're casual trails nowhere near deep woods. The nature trail to Lake Sammamish is a loop, one side cutting through the dog area along the river -- avoid this side if dogs bother you -- and the other beginning at the edge of the park's East Meadow. My preference is to begin at the main parking lot near the mansion, picking up a trail near the windmill and following the river upstream through the dog area. The best part begins at a gate on the upstream edge of the dog area, were the canines must be leashed and wetland vegetation predominates. Three native willow species grow along the river -- Marymoor originally was called Willowmoor -- and here wildlife is most visible.

Hobbs leads the informal birding walks every Wednesday along the trail, and the most ever spotted by participants were 57 species. However, an intensive survey last May tallied 71. On one of the recent walks, we spotted fox and song sparrows, towhees, flickers, crows, black cap chickadees, coots, goldeneyes, mallards, buffleheads, herons, gulls, crows, robins, kinglets, red-tailed hawks and many others. Marymoor is an excellent place to watch the big, graceful red-tails, since three pair nest just outside the park.


	A blue heron watches for lunch from its perch atop a leafless tree in the massive Marymoor Park on the north end of Lake Sammamish. PHIL H. WEBBER/P-I

Nearing the lake, the nature trail becomes boardwalk, ending at a spot where until a few years ago a large floating dock provided spots to fish, picnic or just sit and observe. Hammered by winter storms over the years, the dock deteriorated and was removed a couple of years ago. Park operations manager Carl Kostal says it will be replaced this summer with a fixed platform.

The Sammamish River Trail is a perfect paved path for bicycling along the lazy "slough," as locals call it. Many riders start at Marymoor and pedal to three wineries and/or a brewery in Woodinville about six miles north. It's also popular among skaters and joggers, and is a pleasant walk as well during less busy times, such as weekday mornings. Find it by crossing a pedestrian bridge across the slough just downstream of the park entrance off West Lake Sammamish Parkway.

The Bridle Crest Trail was designed in the 1970s for horseback riding, but appears little used for that purpose today. Its very best stretch is a sliver of native forest just up the hill from Marymoor that includes some large old conifers. Find the trail on the west wide of the parkway just south of the Marymoor entrance.

One can't help but get a sense of what a great place it is, not to mention its potential.

This could be a truly amazing park. Will it ever be?

"It's a gem now, but any park that gets the kind of use Marymoor does is going to have the issues Marymoor does," said Al Dams, King County parks spokesman. "Obviously the county's financial crisis right now is going to have an impact on Marymoor and everywhere else in our parks system. It will definitely limit our ability to ... take Marymoor to the next level."

P-I.

If you go...

WHAT: Marymoor Park, described by some as the "crown jewel" of the King County parks system, with 640 acres of wetlands, meadows, shoreline and ballfields and sport facilities.

WHERE: 6046 W. Lake Sammamish Parkway N.E. in Redmond, where the Sammamish River flows out of Lake Sammamish.

FACILITIES: Picnic areas, year-round soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts, bicycling velodrome, climbing rock, radio-controlled model airplane field, 40-acre off-leash dog area, rowing club, Marymoor Museum of Eastside History in historic Clise Mansion, one-mile nature trail and trailhead for 11-mile paved Sammamish River Trail and the two-mile Bridle Crest Trail.

CONTACTS: General park number is 206-205-3661, and Web site is at www.metrokc.gov/parks/rentals/pomjun99.htm.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Interpretive programs include May Day Wild Flowers, May 1, and Nosy About Nests, May 18. Call 206-296-4171. ... Michael Hobbs of Friends of Marymoor leads bird-watching walks every Wednesday morning at 7:30, meeting in the dog-area parking lot.

P-I reporter Greg Johnston can be reached at 206-448-8014 or gregjohnston@seattlepi.com.

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