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Dash Point State Park Reveals: WTA is More Than Trails

Posted by melanib at Oct 02, 2023 09:24 AM |
Filed under: Trails For Everyone, Advocacy, State Park, Community, Trail Next Door, Partnerships, Volunteer, Trail Work

Dash Point State Park is a great example of how WTA works in many different ways to create trails for everyone, forever. We are working behind the scenes to fund land management agencies, and we’re working on the ground to rebuild trails. From empowering partners to get their communities outdoors – to helping everyone who gets outdoors to see the part they play in stewarding the places they love, we are building a better future for trails.

If you could walk through Dash Point State Park with special goggles that see through time, they would reveal all the ways that WTA has transformed the park this past year.
 
This past spring, WTA staff and volunteers spent hours working to decommission an old, dangerous trail and improve muddy conditions on the Old Boundary Out 'n Back trail. The dirty work included clearing and building drains to funnel water off trail, unclogging and resetting culverts and clearing a small landslide. As the rains begin again this fall, this work will allow people to safely enjoy the forests and beaches of Dash Point State Park.  

Side by side photos with left photo of muddy trail and right photo of volunteers finishing placing a culvert under the trailWTA staff and volunteers reset a culvert on Dash Point State Park’s Old Boundary Out ‘n Back trail to improve drainage. Photos by Shanice Snyder.

But WTA’s connection with Dash Point goes even deeper than trails. Have you ever been frustrated or even turned away from a hike because of road conditions? Have you ever missed out on a day outside because you didn’t know where to go or what to bring to be prepared? Then you know that hiking is about more than just trails.  
 
WTA partners with government agencies, community organizations and hikers like you to make it possible for Washingtonians to have safe and enjoyable experiences outdoors. 
 

WTA-secured funding improves a day or night spent outdoors at Dash Point

 
During the 2022 Washington state legislative session, WTA rallied our partners and hiking community to win $15 million of new ongoing, annual maintenance funding for our state recreation lands. This means that every year, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington State Parks now have funding to chip away at their backlog of maintenance needs. They can make needed fixes and upgrades to trails, roads, parking lots, bathrooms, campgrounds and more – improving your access to state lands and your experience outdoors.
 
At Dash Point State Park, that maintenance funding paid for improvements across the park this past year — all to make it easier and safer for people to enjoy Dash Point’s forests and beaches. The funding enabled parks staff to re-gravel the parking lot, fix broken water lines and repair the beach shower. And if you have ever spent a sleepless night under the stars because of uneven ground, then you can appreciate the funding that re-leveled the camping pads at Dash Point’s upper loop campgrounds.  
 
    • Join WTA’s Trail Action Network. 
    • Hikers like you helped WTA and our partners win new maintenance funding that is improving outdoor access at Dash Point and around the state. Be part of future successes to protect lands and fund trails by signing up to receive action alerts.  
“Dash Point is an incredibly beautiful park,” said WTA staff member Erin McQuin. “There is a rich variety of landscapes within the park. You can spend the morning wandering the woods and spotting giant trillium by a pond. Then in the afternoon you can walk down the beach and search for shells along the sand flats.” 

Three side by side photos of mushrooms sprouting on a log, an open shell on sand, white trillium flowerDash Point offers encounters with beach and forest life. Photos by trip reporters MissJenn, hikingwithlittledogs and D_Law. 

Dash Point launches experiences in nature

Everyone deserves opportunities to spend time outdoors. However, we know that potholed roads and muddy trails are not the only barriers that keep people from connecting with nature. Funding, information, transportation and other resources are distributed unevenly across our communities. 

    • These community partners joined WTA’s hiking and camping workshops at Dash Point
    • - Wild Grief
    • - Sequoia Therapeutic Recreation
    • - BOE-TIE (Reco Bembry)
    • - Hoh Tribe
    • - Nisqually Nature Reach Center
    • - Braided Seeds
    • - African Community Housing and Development
    • - Various Boy and Girl Scout Troops 
    • - Woodland Park Zoo
    • - Lake Washington Girls Middle School
    • - Puget Sound Community School
    • - Whatcom Intergenerational School
    • - Children’s Home Society of WA
    • - Avanti High School
    • - Latino Outdoors (Yakima branch)
    • - Climate Action Families

Dash Point serves as one launchpad for underserved communities to access the outdoors. With support from park ranger Jeff Vassalo, in the past 2 years, WTA’s Outdoor Leadership Training (OLT) program has run hiking and camping workshops with 16 of our community partners at Dash Point State Park. It’s a great location with its access to water and overnight campsites. It’s an urban park where it’s convenient to showcase different outdoor scenarios. WTA’s OLT program provides hands-on training workshops where youth or community-serving organizations can learn basic camping, hiking, backpacking or snowshoeing skills so that they can create a positive and safe learning environment to take their groups outdoors.

“The large maple trees at the day-use picnic area where we host our hiking and camping workshops have helped provide shade and a canopy for an immersive learning experience. By far, my favorite part of OLT workshops is seeing community partners connect and bond through shared programs and interests during a long day together,” said MJ Sampang, WTA’s Community Partnerships and Leadership Development coordinator. 

Workshop participants gather, talk and eat around picnic tables in the forestCommunity partners connect with each other and the resources at Dash Point at WTA’s Outdoor Leadership Training camping workshop. Photo by MJ Sampang.

At the workshops, we see partners connect with each other. After the workshops, we see partners connecting their communities with the outdoors.

Braided Seeds, one of WTA’s OLT partners, is a Black-led community-based organization that provides opportunities for rest, restoration and repair through connection with the land. They host experiences at Dash Point. You might find them with a group of preschoolers at the day use area, or launching kayaks from Dash Point for a day spent on the water. 

Dash Point State Park is a great example of how WTA works in many different ways to create trails for everyone, forever. We are working behind the scenes to fund our federal, state and local land management agencies, and we’re working on the ground to rebuild trails. From empowering partners to get their communities outdoors – to helping everyone who gets outdoors to see the part they play in stewarding the places they love, we are building a better future for trails.

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