Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, North SeaTac Park — Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2023

North SeaTac Park is in my neighborhood so it is pretty familiar to me.  Over the years I have walked or bicycled thru the park many times and even cross country skied there when conditions were snowy.  For this hike I kind of circumnavigated the park, using bike paths, mountain bike trails and cutting across the Frisbee golf course.  I also spent some time in the Highline Botanical Garden, a favorite short walk for my wife and myself.

For those not familiar with North SeaTac Park, it was once a neighborhood of houses until in the 1970’s when the Port Authority bought out the whole area and removed the houses.  Since then it has become a beacon for all sorts of recreational groups.  The City of SeaTac built a community center there and has developed the northern half of the park (between S 136^th and S 128^th streets) into ballfields, playgrounds and walking/bike paths.  They also put in a Frisbee golf course in this part.  The southern portion (between S 144^th and S 136^th streets) also had sports fields and a set of tennis courts that were left over from the middle school that was closed as the airport expanded.  These are still there, with one of them used for rugby.  Meanwhile the old streets were blocked off but still run thru the area and have become a favorite spot for mountain biking, with lots of interconnecting trails between the roads.  More recently a rough BMX track has been expanded into a competition-level track and includes some RC car tracks and a “pump bike” track. 

Also, the area next to the community center (just off 24^th Ave S) has become the Highline Botanical Garden and the home of several transplanted older gardens from the area.  This includes the Seike Japanese Garden which was originally built just north of the airport but was moved to accommodate the third runway.  That garden is a real gem with an interesting history and I have included a link at the bottom for anyone interested. 

On my hike I wanted to go around the whole park, taking advantage of some of the social trails (mountain bike trails, mostly) where I could find them to avoid the more familiar paths.  In the southern part of the park I tried a couple trails that might go thru in the summer, but were flooded this time of the year, so I had to backtrack to the outer bike path and the shoulder of S 144th street.  On one of those I found the lovely red blossoms on an old flowering quince.  I cut thru the mtn bike trails to the gardens and walked around them.   That’s where the Japanese garden is.  I have included some pictures from that part of the garden to show how nice it is.  The rest of the garden areas were not quite in season.  Several flowering trees were already starting to fade and the rhododendrons, roses, peonies, and iris gardens are not yet blooming.  I did find a quiet path that included bunches of hellebores and trilliums, including the ones I included below. 

Finishing the loop I clocked 4.25 miles and a bit over 200 feet of gain.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=178673