this trail is one of my favorite parks to hike in within an urban setting. for today i parked at the large beach parking area and headed up the trail at the thames creek trailhead (need a discover pass or day pass). nice gradual incline for a bit, then i took the first side trail on the right (old boundary trail). this is a pretty steep uphill for awhile, a combination of trail and steps. i then transitioned to the east rim trail/heart attack hill (another uphill climb)/pauls hill/ridge trail and ended up at my destination, which was the norpoint trailhead. from there i continued to skirt the perimeter heading east and taking a number of other trails (technical/toenail/imba/double dip/logjam/boundary before ending up back north at the parking lot. plenty of ups and downs and technical trails to traverse. if you start at the parking lot by the beach you could stay on the lower half of the park and not have too many uphills to deal with as going to the south end is mostly uphill, nothing really crazy but still uphill. 

there are so many different trails in this park, and they are mostly marked, but no matter how much i prepare by creating a route beforehand i always lose my way. this i don't really mind as you are never really lost and the more time i spend in the park the more i feel so immersed within the ecosystem here and how fortunate i am to be here. noise level is pretty low and there were only a scattering of other hikers that i ran into today. it was pretty cold so dress accordingly, i also brought a waist pack to hold my water and carried hiking poles but did not need to extend them today. i hiked almost 6 miles but you could put in much more. highly recommended. a big thank you to whomever marked the trails which helped a lot! my gps phone app came in handy as well since cell coverage here can be inconsistent.

lastly i did not go to the beach area today but that is another great place to head to!

We camped at the state park and on Saturday afternoon, it was super high tide. Lots of people still enjoying the beach swimming, BBQ'ing and playing in the sand or water. Our kiddo and a friend's kiddo had fun splashing at (or with?) the waves. We took the trail from the campgrounds to the beach which is about half mile one way. The trek back to the campgrounds is up hill but the kiddo managed fine. Trail in great condition. 

On Sunday, we returned to the beach at super low tide. SO much beach to explore. We trekked all the way to the water's edge. Dog had fun. Kid had fun. We had fun. Water felt nice on such a warm day. Saw some little jellyfish floating around here and there. Unsure if they were dead or alive. In the one hour or so we were at the beach, we had to move back several times because the tide was coming in. No issues with that since we were just walking around or standing. We saw others who had set up their picnics/shade tents who really had to resettle further away from the incoming tide. 

Love a sandy beach since a lot of our beaches in the area are, um, rocks. 

We spent part of this overcast Saturday exploring nearby Dash Point State Park. The main parking lot next to the water is large with restrooms toward the beach.

We highly recommend downloading a map of the trails prior to arriving. Most of the trails are somewhat marked, but the trail system may be difficult to follow without a map to reference. We completed a 2.7 mile lollipop loop which included the following trails: Thames Creek, Outbound, Heart Attack Hill, Double Dip, Ridge, Paul's, and the Downhill, looping back to the parking lot via Outbound and Thames.

All trails are in good condition. Double Dip and Paul's are a little overgrown, but nothing unmanageable. Watch your step for slugs.

Overall, a great state park with many trails to explore and a nice way to spend a drizzly afternoon.

Dash Point is a very nice 460 acre State Park in Federal Way. We happened to be in the area for a minor medical procedure so it worked out well. The spring foliage is quite nice now with several large bunches of Trillium in various stages of bloom. The blooms start off white then gradually turn purple just before they are about to shrivel up.

The beach gets quite wide at low tide. The pics below were at about +1 ft tide. It would be interesting to see it during a very low tide.

Song birds are out in force now. Our Merlin app picked up at least 15 different bird species!  What a beautiful serenade!

Trails are in good condition. It’s peak trillium season, and the flowering currant and salmonberries are blooming as well.