Quick walk around the Discovery park loop and down to the beach, etc Sunday morning.  We parked at the Hiram Chittenden locks and walked over using the super secret pedestrian bridge doing the loop clockwise for a total of about 6 miles and 500 gross vertical.  The main parking lots in Discovery were busy but not full and the locks lot was also busy but not full.  Restrooms at Discovery appeared to be all closed for the season while those at the locks were open and in good condition.  The north and south beach trails were muddy where they normally are half way down the bluff and several bits of the original stairs on the north beach trail really are showing their age with busted stairs and railings.  

Quite a bit of wildlife out this morning - raccoon, lots of heron, eagle, raven,  you can even hear all the sealions barking on the Shilshole breakwaters throughout most of the park.  The tide was high so not much beach walking available.  A fair bit of maritime traffic out including a really neat US Coast Guard helicopter and boat training together out in the water, super nice to see those folks out.  Lastly, if you make it over to the locks don’t miss the work the Army Corp of Engineers is doing to replace the middle gate in the large lock - super interesting.  A really nice morning.  #lovelocaltrails

Blog version (disclaimers)

Quick-and-dirty version

Access: Discovery Park SE Entrance (park info)
Round Trip: 6.7 miles
Elevation Range: 50′-360′
Essential Gear: none
Dog-friendly: yes

Route

1. To maximize the mileage, consider taking the outer path, including Loop Trail and South Beach Trail, and adding the inner trails to the mix.

Highlights

• A quiet stroll before sunrise
• Some views of Puget Sound, despite the not-too-great weather

Lowlights

• A rainy day

Continuing to do winter walks in Seattle parks I may not have done before, I headed to Discovery Park to do the Loop Trail. I have been on sections of this hundreds of times but I didn't think I had ever done the whole thing. Parked at Visitor Center and headed counterclockwise around the park. Started at 9:00 AM. I was actually a little surprised by the amount of people, but I guess I shouldn't have been on a Sunday. Lots of runners and dog walkers. Cloudy morning but didn't start raining until I was almost finished. Took a side trip down to the beach, and walked out to the lighthouse (briefly saw a sea lion), and down to the base of the cliffs at the other end of the beach. Then back up the bluff and continued the loop. Had forgotten about that staircase workout coming back up through the woods from the beach. Came around the other side of the park and got back to the Visitor Center parking lot area. Added another side trip to the cemetery and did a loop around the grounds there. Then back to the car at 11:00. No other wildlife. Came out to 6.1 miles.