Easy hike at the Discovery Park, not too crowded. A lot of tree shades, perfect on a sunny day!

Nice and relaxing hike, and had the wonderful opportunity to hear a Raven song. Beautiful view of Rainier as well! 

Easy trail with some paved sections. Beautiful view of Mt Rainier, the Olympic Mountains and the West Point lighthouse! Parked at the East Lot and did the loop. Gorgeous beach access. Dog friendly

Quick walk around the Discovery Park loop and beach trails Sunday morning.  We started over at the locks and took the super secret pedestrian bridge across the railroad tracks then made a messy clockwise loop around the park, down to the beach, back up past the north parking lot and back over to the locks along W Commodore Way.  Mileage ended up right about 6 miles with a total of 575’ gross vertical.  Parking at both the locks or any of the Discovery park lots is plentiful but fills up quite quickly on a nice weekend day.  Restrooms at Discovery were a bit hit or miss with the one near the north lot open and in good condition but others seemed to still be closed for the season.  Restrooms at the locks were open and fully functional.  Park trails were generally in fine condition with the exception of the north beach trail climb back up to the top of the bluff which is quite muddy and has some stairs/railings in marginal condition.  

The big wildlife scene today were all the herons, both at the rookery on the sound side of the locks but also a bunch of them down on the beaches fishing for breakfast or flying around looking for nesting material - super cool.    The surprise treat of the day was watching coast guard crews doing helicopter training out in Puget Sound - very glad we have folks like that here to help people, including hikers, that have found themselves in a bad situation.  Lastly, don’t miss the iconic views west to the big, snowy Olympics and back south to Rainier - never disappointing.  A really nice urban walk with a bunch to see.  

Yet another pack-training trip, this time on the Discovery Park Loop Trail. We started at the South Parking Lot, and did a clockwise loop around the park. We took a detour to the North Beach, which neither my partner nor I had ever been to. 

When we got to the South Parking Lot around 10, there were a few spaces left in the main paved lot, though the rougher gravel lot (lots of rough potholes) was practically empty. We drove into it with our Toyota Tacoma with no problems (though lots of bouncing around), but we watched a RAV4 try and almost bottom out, so be careful!

The loop itself was overall in pretty good shape, though the trail is really muddy in some places. It's mostly dirt and gravel, and many of the dirt trails had at least a couple of muddy parts you had to squish through. The trail that splits off to the beach was muddy as well, and I nearly slipped at one point on our way to the stairs.

The North Beach itself is very rocky and small, but quiet — I got the sense folks didn't go there very often, and probably head to the lighthouse instead (which makes sense; that beach is way bigger and sandy). You can, however, see the lighthouse from the beach, which is cool!

On our way around the park, we saw a few blooms — spring! —  including some very bright red flowering currant. We also saw a dog chasing away a coyote near the westside bluffs. 

We were far from the only ones at the park, and that was apparent whenever we were in an more open area of the park. However, there were several points in the forest where we got some quiet time to ourselves. All in all, we got in about 4 miles of hiking, and it was a lovely day for it.