Sequalitchew Creek Trail

The Sequalitchew creek runs through DuPont down to Puget Sound through a beautiful gorge.  I just found out about the trail a few weeks ago, and we had to go check it out.  It starts just behind the DuPont City Hall.

It was supposed to get up to 90° so we wanted to get an early start.  We got to DuPont just before 9:00.  (We arranged to meet some friends, but they were a little behind, so we started walking.)  Kate spotted a little snake that went by too quickly to get a picture of.



This deer checked us out for a while and then ambled casually across the trail. 



The gorge was just beautiful--lush and green (a lot more deciduous than I'd been expecting).  The trail is paved for part of the way and then goes back to gravel again.  




At the end of the forest there's a tunnel that goes under the train tracks, heading out to the beach. Actually a pair of tunnels--one has old tracks running through it. The kids had to go through that side, of course.



Looking back (through the other tunnel). Love the light!



Kristi Timme and her girls caught up with us right before we hit the tunnel. We headed down to the beach together.



The tide was out pretty far. There were lots of creatures to find.




Crab!



The girls tipped over some rocks and found some sea stars, and these strange green creatures which on closer inspection appear to be some kind of isopod. (We made sure to turn the rocks back over afterwards.)






The view! There's also a shipwreck (an old cement ship grounded on a sandbar), in the other direction, that I hear you can walk to when the tide is completely out, but it was pretty far away from where we were. Perhaps we'll do that some day.



On the way back we had to stop and get a family picture in this gorgeous lighting. This one cracked me up--Andy gazing off into the distance and Kate making goofy faces--yep, that's our life. (This was really the best of the lot--the others were all blurry or had Kate doing some sort of pained zombie impression.)

We made it back up to the top of the trail right around noon.  It was getting hot by then, and it is uphill all the way--not terribly steep, but still tiring.  (Kate ended up riding the last half or so in the Timmes' amazing double-seater all-terrain stroller while the littles were carried.  We parents got a workout!)



We went through Lakewood on the way home and stopped at House of Pho.  This was planned in advance--we brought along Kate's training chopsticks.



Kate communes with the fish.   She and the big one were making some funny faces at each other.

A successful outing!  We'll have to do it again sometime.