I haven’t been to Magnuson in years, so we decided to do a pack-training urban hike today! (I packed my pack with a bunch of water and books and waited until I got home to weigh it — just under 40 pounds! No wonder my legs were so wobbly 🫠)

We ended up making a 4-mile trek around the park, which included hiking around some of the wetlands, taking a trip up Promontory Point and around that area, then to the beach and back. 

THE ROAD / PARKING 

We got to the south parking lot at the Frog Pond Trail’s trailhead (Google Maps calls it the “Park and Ride Magnuson Frog Pond,” and is where the WTA pin drops you) around 11 this morning, and the lot was pretty empty. The same could be said when we got back to the parking lot a little before 1. 

There are no restrooms at this trailhead, but there was an open port-a-potty near the tennis courts (the restrooms themselves are closed), an open port-a-potty near the boat launch, and the restrooms along the beach walk near the swimming beach were also open. 

THE TRAILS

Many of the trails are in great shape, but the wetlands are a bit messy. 

The wetland trails are hugely hit-or-miss. I was using Gaia as a guide to route-find on our hike today, and many of the trails were iffy or just non-existent. We got our feet wet in the wetlands for sure.

The Promontory Point trails were all in great shape, and the beach walk is paved all the way so was also an easy hike. 

MISC. 

I had never been to the Promontory Point area in the park (nor did I know that existed) and I highly recommend it! There are all these small plaques that give information about the vegetation in the area, which is cool. Plus, once you climb to the top of the hill, you can get some nice peek-a-boo views of the water through the trees. 

We saw some signs of spring out there, including some red flowering currant!

Overall, it was a really quiet day. There were plenty of folks out today, but since there are so many trails in the park, we got a lot of solitude during our couple of hours outside. 

Wife and I enjoyed this glorious sun filled winter day exploring some new to us meandering trails through this urban park. Close to home and easy access made this one super easy and without travel and traffic drama. It's amazing how much wildlife activity can be found within the city and today we saw a whole bunch of recent evidence of beaver activity, a muskrat in one of the ponds, birds including Golden Crowned Kinglets, Buffleheads, a Hooded Merganser, Northern Flickers and surprisingly... a flock of six or so Swallows swooping over a pond snatching unseen to us flying midges. I hope they were able to capture and eat enough of the bugs in flight to make it through the night, as it was 24 degrees this morning... not prime time for their source of food and energy. Seems the swallows should have flown south months ago, but nature is full of surprises! Nice to get a nature fix so close in to the city!

This was my first walk in Magnuson Park; my last trip here was when the park was still an NAS (Naval Air Station) with a PX and active duty personnel.  We walked from a parking lot near the 74th Street Entrance to the duck pond area (see map of park, this area is south of the 74th Street Entrance about 1 mile from the parking area we used.  We saw and few ducks in one pond but no other wild life.  The "Trails" are a mixture of concrete, asphalt and gravel; easy walking and level for the most part.  There are still remnants of the NAS including a large hangar, and a very flat patch that probably was the runway.

The "Duck Ponds" were fun to explore and not well known as several people we asked did not know of their existence; we got to Lake Washington an noted some "fall" color on the shore to the north of us.  We finished the hike by going over "kite" hill and back to our vehicle.  My phone indicated a 2.5 mile loop.  To my surprise there was evidence of Beaver activity near the ponds, gnawed trees and logs.  No Beaver sightings, however.

This is a great city walk and fun park to explore.

Quick walk Sunday morning around the Magnuson Park trails and up Promontory Point.  Parking is free and relatively plentiful in multiple different lots, (we parked at the boat launch area.)  There are multiple functional sanicans around, (boat launch, pea patch, sports fields, etc)  Our route was a messy figure eight loopy doopy going all the way to the tip of the most northern boat pier all the way to the top of Promontory Point on the very south end for a total of not quite 5 miles.  No specific trail issues other than some of the soft surface trails are a bit muddy..  Access to the famous Sound Garden sculpture just outside the park in the big NOAA facility is still fenced off though the “garden is closed!” sign is no longer there but I couldn’t find any definitive information as to if there is any way to get access - maybe someday in the future… 

Not an overwhelming amount of wildlife out - some small winter birds, ducks, geese, and a couple cormorant though there was a single black Raven doing that hollow wood knocking type call they do perched at the top of one of the trees near the old officers quarters buildings.  Lots of nice views of the lake plus all the historical buildings from the Naval Airstation.  The little children's garden near the dog park parking lot is pretty neat too.  Promontory Point is largely grown over but there are a few peekaboo views on the eastern side.  Don’t miss the bronze commemorative sculpture and plaque right at the old base main gate off Sandpoint Way for the very first around the world aircraft flight that ended right at this airstrip in Sept 1924 - barely 100 years ago.  And I get a kick out of knowing the whole area was underwater before the lake level was dropped by the Army Corp of Engineers, then completely paved over for the Sand Point Naval Airstation, and now redeveloped as a super popular place for Seattleites to get outside.  A beautiful morning.  

Link to more historical information of the area - https://www.historylink.org/file/2249

Two of us took our dog to the Magnuson waterfront to see if we could spot any waterfowl. We had 25 species for the morning (from 8-9:10 AFTER setting clocks back an hour) including mergansers, grebes, and a fox sparrow.

Most of the pavement is walkable but some of the trails are quite muddy following recent rains. A lot of people were out with their dogs, all but one on leash. It was a nice overcast morning without any rain. The most surprising sighting was seeing two women without wetsuits standing in the water up to their chest, chatting away. BRRR!