MUKILTEO — I lived in Mukilteo for several years, but I had to move out to find out what made the city’s 92nd Street Park truly special.
When I lived there, I walked past the park at Mukilteo Speedway and 92nd Street nearly every weekend for exercise. But the children’s playground, small pond, and patch of woods never drew me in. It wasn’t until a Facebook friend, Jeff Nichols, posted a nice photo of a duck and its ducklings that I got interested in checking it out.
Nichols, who lives near the park and is a former member of the city Parks and Arts Commission, said there are basically three groups that frequent the park. “There are people who bring their kids to play, people who come to walk their dogs, and people who come to walk the trails,” he said.
He fits in the walk-their-dog group, and visits the park most days.
Nichols, who is wheelchair-bound, said the grassy park and its adjacent patch of woods are pretty accessible in his chair. “It’s nice to get out in the woods and not have to drive anywhere,” he said.
The park also has ample parking, a rest room, picnic tables, a marsh loaded with bullfrogs, and plenty of grass for games and running around. Kids enjoy watching some of the huge bullfrogs that rim the pond while basking in the sun most days. Mallards can usually be seen feeding there as well.
In addition to the ducks, Nichols said herons, raccoons and squirrels are common. There’s even the occasional sound of a coyote.
In addition to families and pets, he said users included a large group attending a birthday party in the park this spring.
Nichols enjoys the playground area because he helped the city get a grant and he selected the equipment. “It’s nice to see all the kids playing on the equipment,” Nichols said. “It means a lot.”
He calls the park a “good little neighborhood park.”
“It’s not a big park, but it’s got a lot of things in it,” he said of the 13 or so acres. He also said people come from all over to enjoy it.
My favorite is the part of it I never saw until recently, a trail system of a couple miles that can be accessed from the park, the Mukilteo Public Library parking lot, a spot off Highway 525 south of the park, or at the Staybridge Suites Hotel.
In the park, the trail is at the south end, where a set of stairs plunges into Big Gulch.
That’s the best part of this little gem of a park — about three miles of trails wandering through the forest. Big Gulch is no wilderness, but the trails quickly give you a feeling of wildness in the middle of a city.
The trail leads along a little creek that has a few coho and chum salmon in the fall and meanders through a woods containing some large trees.
The trails are an easy to moderate walk, but can be a little muddy in winter and early spring. The Big Gulch trail is not wheelchair accessible, and Nichols said he hopes the city will eventually add to the trails in the patch of woods adjacent to the park.
He said there is definitely a plan to add to the trail system in the gulch when money is available.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
