(Attempting to) Hike from Richmond Beach to Carkeek Park
Last Sunday, my family and I went on a hike from Richmond Beach in Shoreline, WA down to Carkeek Park. Or we tried to, anyway.
We started off by taking the 348 bus from near where we live to Richmond Beach, in Shoreline. This trip also provided me with an opportunity to try out my new hydration pack that I’d gotten for my upcoming desert camping.
We started out a little later than we wanted; around 1PM. We got to the end of the bus route, and walked to find the path to the beach. Now, the 348 stops quite near the beach, but the end of the line is not the stop to get off the bus at. You should get off earlier in the route before it winds its way down. Use Metro’s trip planner.
We took the route to the end of the line, and had to climb back up hill some to get to Richmond Beach. I was struck by how much the park there looks like it’s out of southern California. The way the hills were covered with Scotchbroom, and the character of the day felt like my trip to SoCal a few years ago.
We ate a snack at the park before heading out. There is a nice bridge out over the rail tracks, leading to the beach itself. It was a beautiful day, and many people were out playing. The kids decided to wade into the Puget Sound while we walked. This was cool. Sadly, one of them failed to give us his cellphone before doing so, so he trashed it.
We walked and walked. As we travelled away from the park, the population of people thinned out. Eventually, we were nearly alone. Only a few people walked around as well, and they were far from where we were at.
Eventually, we came to an underpass that led into the forest on the other side of the railroad tracks.
We explored it a little, and found a nice place to sit down and eat. From there, we continued to head south. We went around a bend, which you can see it in the second image in this post; the camera is facing north, just past the bend in the background is where the tunnel under the tracks is located. We continued to walk. No one was around at this point. It was around four in the afternoon, and the tide was starting to come in. We got to about 2 miles from Carkeek before we elected to bail on the trail because the kids were running short on water and hadn’t planned well. The tide was coming in, and things were getting hairy.
On the way back, I climbed up to the rail grade, and took some shots along there. I kept my eyes peeled for trains, and saw the Amtrak Coast Starlight when it was two miles away, so I was able to position myself well, and safely.
We went through the underpass that we’d seen earlier, as it had an obvious trail up and out.
What we didn’t expect to find was big, locked gate on the other end. Turns out that the underpass there goes to Innis Arden, a private community. We had to be let out. It was fortunate that there was someone working out in their yard, otherwise we’d have to go back down, and walk back to Richmond Beach. The kids would not have enjoyed that. 
We climbed out of the valley, following the road up. We came across Shoreview park, were we refilled our water containers, and had a good rest. Then we walked from there up, and came to Shoreline Community College, where we caught the Route 5 Bus, and eventually got home.
Whew, it was a fun hike, and I’m going to do it again, but with better planning so we complete it.
We learned about this hike from Metro Bus Hikes: a web page by someone who wanted to know what hikes could be done without a car.