What to do? Where to go?
Ah, the trials and tribulations of being newly retired. There's just so much I want to go and see and do and . . . you get the idea.
Sehr schwierig, jah?
And I found something. Ed Munro Seahurst Park over in the City of Burien.
The park is 178 acres filled with forests and is set along the Puget Sound. Originally a King County park, created in 1975, it was given to the newly incorporated city of Burien (Here, you pay for it now) in 1996. The beach is about 2,000 feet long and they made the upper part of the beach into a sea wall.
The park is home to a wide variety of wildlife. They say eagles, herons, woodpeckers, owls, pheasants, raccoons and the usual suspects among other seabirds can be seen and heard there. All we saw were seagulls and crows.
They have a salmon hatchery in the park but no natural salmon run. The hatchery and the Marine Technology Lab is operated by several of the school districts in the area as an educational facility.
The park is also referred to as Ed Munro Seahurst Park in honor of the Washington state legislator who played a key role in its creation.
The seawall, which was built in 1972, is deteriorating and has changed the environment on the beach. They've added large logs and native vegetation to the upper beach to make it look more natural and to limit access to the beach. They're restoring the beach to a more natural beach now.
Burien could possibly do a better job with their park signs, n'es pas?
We arrived to a woman working her way along the beach . . . feeding the wildlife.
And this!! My eyes are just naturally drawn to the ferries.
And if I's sees 'em, I's shoots 'em!!
Every time. Each and every time.
I do believe that is the Vashon Island to Fauntleroy Ferry.
And then I spotted these two guys and, Pop Quiz!! What poem would this scene remind me of?
Hmmmmmm!?!
Regardless, it is an interesting scene.
I have to be honest here, this is a lengthy blog and it is mostly pictures. Pictures of the park. I've questioned my motives lately about creating this blog. Is it a record of my adventures? Is it a photo essay? Or, is it a way to showcase my photography . . . which, you have to admit, makes up about 75% of everything here on the blog.
I am trying to say it isn't that showcase thingie . . . that sounds awfully vain. I'd rather it were an interesting essay, or record, of my adventures but, in my heart, I'm thinking it's primarily a way for me to put my photography out there . . . in a very safe and secure manner.
Wassup?
Hahahaha, here's that seagull thingie again. You're going to see several of them today.
Fun Fact: The Glaucous Gull is a four-year Gull in that it takes four years to reach adult plumage. Compare this shot to the later shot of a mature Glaucous Seagull and you'll see where the mature gull has the yellowish beak with that distinctive red mark on it and a white head that marks an adult.
It was a beautiful afternoon. We got there around 1230 and we got the afternoon sun. Up here, the sun isn't directly overhead at noon and so we get a nice slanting version of sun even at this hour.
(The poem was The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, duh!!)
There was a LOT of driftwood on the beach. This piece was towards the southern end of the beach, the part they've done the most to in regards to restoring.
There were several streams, creeks, rills, whatever you wish to call a small moving body of water on the beachfront. On the southern end they just flowed and found their way to the sound. The northern end was more controlled and directed.
Just a nice shot. You can see some of the native plants they reintroduced to the beach. This small puddle was getting stagnant.
Here's a long view of the southern end of the beach. It really is a nice beach and I'm grateful they were able to carve out such a large area for the public. It's not that I resent the richer-than-me (I had to say that cuz most of them aren't rich, per se, but they are, hahahaha, richer than me) owning all that waterfront property. They worked for it and paid for it but, doggone it, sometimes I wish they'd ease up a bit and let the proletariat in.
That's my rant and I'm sticking to it.
Ah, the crows.
Hahahaha, same shot as above BUT I added a . . . seagull.
Carol was off looking for sea shells by the sound shore.
Hahaha, they were there and I took my shot. It is a change of pace, sort of. It's not a seagull. C'mon, gimme some credit, will ya!?!
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| Huh? What'd you say, Raven? |
She was moving off a bit further. This is looking towards the northern end of the park's beach. The clouds and the impending bad weather are behind me, to the south.
Not exactly like Weston's Rocks and Pebbles, 1948, but it shows I'm thinking.
Here it is, This was, sadly, the last photograph Edward Weston made before he finally succumbed to Parkinson's Disease. If you're not familiar with his work, please don't judge him by this one photograph. Visit the web and look him up. He was an original American Artist.
Looking south, you can see where the slopes leading down to the Sound have eroded. The trees aren't normally expected to grow . . . sideways.
And a B&W shot of, hahaha, Rocks and Pebbles, 2015.
I've started trying to think in B&W terms again. You'll have to bear with me. But, off the top of my head, I was thinking dark but I think maybe I could lighten this picture up just a bit.
Hahahaha, fooled ya!! I bet you thought this was a B&W shot!! But, no, it isn't. The sun blasted out the color and the subject helped.
There she is, a seagull. In B&W.
Trying for a decent shot.
Love the wide-angle lens, too.
Looking north along the shores of the Puget Sound.
And here are some of the sea shells Carol found.
Ah, the beauty of the sea gull.
Hola, y'all!!
Some of the scenes along the beach.
A jelly fish . . . I think.
And in that same vein of dead and decomposing animals along the beach, here's my version of an old crab.
Hahaha, still trying on the pebble thingie . . . but I shook things up and added a piece of driftwood. No, don't say it. I understand.
De ferry, boss!! De ferry!!
Annnnnnnd, let's reach way out there!!
OK, so I was really walking this whole time although you might not be able to tell that from the pictures. I finally made it up to the northern end of the park's beach.
(Hahahaha, I do love me some zoom!!)
Now, this is something but I don't know what. They drove in rows of stakes and then tied them off together to make a grid. All over this stagnant pool of water. Then they put up banks to keep the water in. It didn't look inviting but I am sure it serves some scientific purpose.
There's a picnic area and a playground down there.
And there was a pond, and it reflected the cloudy sky, and I saw my shot and I took it.
So, we were getting ready to leave the beach area. Here's the park looking north . . .
. . . and, same spot, looking south.
Did you see the difference in the skies?
Before we could get out, though, I spotted these trees. I'm liking the patterns that bare limbed trees make against the sky.
Hahaha, I do believe I warned you so, hush!!
It really is a nice park. This path leads from the parking area to the southern end of the beachfront.
And you have to pass over that small stream/creek/rill that I mentioned at the beginning of this opus.
Looking down the path to the Sound beyond the picnic area.
I forget at times that the Puget Sound is a conduit for a very robust overseas trade. Here's a container ship sliding past Vashon Island on its way to the Port of Tacoma.
Just because. We saw this interesting tree as we were walking back up the path towards the mini.
Hmmmmmm, that moss is on the east side of that tree. Very strange.
And that, strangely enough, allows us to segue into this oddity.
There it was, just staring at us.
This one, lone, solitary eye.
Nicely done.
I finally figured out how to look for parks on that doggone Garmin!! Hahaha, given enough time and a whole lot of easy to find clues and I can, eventually, figure out most anything.
And so before we left Seahurst Park, I Garmined the area and found a small and obscure park just a hop, skip and a jump south of Seahurst.
Welcome to the Eagle Landing Park.
This park has a small shoreline access, 247 feet of beach (Whoa, Brah, it's a biggie!), 2 acres of tidelands, and 6 acres of wooded uplands. It's one of the newest parks in Burien. The quarter-mile trail from the parking lot to the beach drops 275 feet in elevation.
In the early 1900s, the land where the park is belonged to the Branson family. The original Branson estate was a 9-acre wooded waterfront residential lot. In 1915, a relative of the owner built a residence in the northern portion of the property. They platted a road but it was never built. The land was logged about a hundred years ago when the wood was felled to supply wood for America's Liberty Ships in WWI.
The steeply (VERY!!) sloped property sits atop two geologic units - glacial lake clay and silt below, and glacial outwash and gravel above - both deposited during glaciation of the Puget Sound in the last Ice Age. Springs trickle down from the hillside at an elevation of about 50 feet. The area has a long history of slope instability according to oral history and the topographic features of the site.
So, for a park named Eagle Landing you'd expect something like this, right? Hahahaha, well, there it is. But it's not the original which was a shorter and more Native Americany version of an eagle totem. Oh, and it was also stolen in February of 2014. They have a little sign up asking for any information. This is the replacement.
Sooooo, it's a very strange park. It starts next to a private driveway and then meanders, and by meander I mean it angles down. It's like the park was sliced on an angle down to the beach . . . it starts here and ends up waaaaaaay over there!
But it was quiet and scenic.
And woodsy. So I'm guessing those tree have been here less than a hundred years.
We came up to a look-out for . . . eagles. It said that in the fir tree ahead of us was an eagle's nest but, neither of us could find it, and they ain't tiny things.
But I learned a little bit more about eagles.
And then it was back to the trail. Which doesn't look all that daunting right here but, give it some time.
A small detail on a fallen tree.
We had known the stairs (?) were closed but we had seen some steps dug into the earth and reinforced with timbers and thought maybe that was what they were talking about.
Uh, no.
We wuz wrong. Seems they have some concrete and angle iron steps going down, steeply, to the shore. And these were the steps that they had closed off.
Here they are but, we're law-abiding folks and so we respected the, uh, locked gate.
But not this guy. He was doing his exercise because he came up the steps to the gate from the beach side and then turned around and went back down stopping on the landing there to record something in a small book.
Ah, you know, it breaks my heart when laws and regulations are broken, really it does. Still, we need them. Like more gun control laws, please, cuz they're sooooo effective at keeping guns out of the hands of bad guys!!
Hahahaha, OK, OK. I'll stop.
Seems the recent rains have caused the clay and silt at the base to start to slide . . . and to take the steps with it. This geology wasn't working our way.
Nothing to do but go back . . . up. Ah, there's the rub, isn't it? When you walks down, you gotta walks back up.
And so, slowly, we began making our way back up the trail.
And, since we were going up, I looked up. Love the wide angle.
I know, you're thinking it doesn't look all that bad. You're right, it isn't. However, wait around for another 40-50 years and then tell me how easy it is.
Hahahaha, you might be singing a different tune, then.
And while we were making our way up the hill, we ran into Roxy and her master coming down.
She was a timid little Carolina Dog. Hahaha, I'd never heard of them before.
The Carolina Dog, or American Dingo, was originally a landrace dog which was discovered living as a wild dog by Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin. They were discovered during the 70s living in isolated stretches of pines and cypress swamps on the Southeatern U.S. Carolina Dogs are a medium sized dog that comes in varying colors. They are now bred and kept in captive collections of packs and as pets. A breed standard has been developed by the United Kennel Club that now specifies the appearance of these dogs.
Some ears, eh?
But soon she had to go down and we, well, we still had to go . . . up.
It was a nice day for a hike. Hahaha, as we went up, we shed scarves and opened our jackets.
And took several breaks, aka 'rests' walking up and, quite naturally, Carol used the time to text her son, Paul, about the Carolina Dog.
Hahahaha, she's becoming quite adept and pretty quick in using these things. Note the SeaHawks colored cell phone case.
Goooooo, 'Hawks!!
Whew!! We finally made it to the mini and as a treat I thought we'd stop by the local DQ and celebrate our having made it back up the hill. I'd spotted it as we drove over to The Eagle Landing Park.
Ah, the familiar smell and looks of Small-Town America!!
Annnnnnnnd, MORE TREATS!!
Ah, what a lovely place.
Artsy-Fartsy Alert X2!!
Ok, seriously, I saw the scene and took this one picture. I like the arrangement and the chairs, backs facing, with the shadows. It turned out, sorta.
Then I went B&W and did some cropping of the same picture.
That's another new and neat feature of digital photography. The greater freedom and creativity you (and by you I mean an average joe like me) have in creating your final product.
I like this one, too.
Hahahaha, and this one? She was liking her Hot Fudge Sundae!!
So we enjoyed our rest at the DQ and refreshed, we headed back to the Hole-In-The-Ground.
It was longer but I decided to drive back via Rainier. It's not that much longer and, who knows? we might see an eagle.
And so we headed down Rainier and were disappointed when we didn't see any eagles in all the usual trees. But, then, just before we to the end of the lake along this road, we spotted an eagle where we'd never seen one before and, to be honest, where I never expected to see one.
You can just make him out . . . the small, dark spot on the lake side of this tree around the center of the picture.
What a surprise to see him there, so close to the lakeside condominiums.
We got out, Carol with her binoculars and me with my camera, and tried to find an angle to see him best.
And it was tough. There's a lot of branches there and the auto focus, well, it focused nearly everywhere BUT the eagle.
But I did get a couple with some very shaky focusing on the eagle's beak.
Carol even got into the act with her cell phone camera.
CB
One last shot of the setting sun on the lake.
Then we thought we spotted yet another eagle just across the street and up at the top of another tree. It was sitting upright and looking very regal but . . . when I got the zoom out and zoomed in on him a bit I saw it was just another crow.
Ratz.
A great day. We had some fun, saw some new things and some new places.
Hahaha, it was fun.
Life is good.
Hooah!!
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