This is a well traveled oasis in the middle of an urban area. Trails are obviously extensively used but in good condition. We didn't do the whole loop but made up our own hike. The park is laced with many trails so there is always another option. So grateful to live nearby.

An erratic, if you don’t happen to know, is a rock which is moved from one place to another by glaciers. During previous ice ages rocks, both large and small have been plucked from far away and sprinkled over the Puget Sound by the retreating glaciers.

Today with the tide low, we visited several erratics along Magnolia Bluff and Discovery Park. The intertidal walking is always fun. Crabs, a small eel, and a large bed of geoducks (sorry, no harvesting here).

Finding the erratics took a little bit of work, but that is the fun of it right? Climbing them is very possible though with my heel in recovery I’ll leave that for another day.

FYI Visitor Center still closed and subsequently the main parking lot there and more importantly, trail access! I parked in the very small side parking lot to the visitor center -- there was one spot left around 8:30 am -- and then ran north along the sidewalk and accessed the loop trail from the North Parking Lot area. The loop trail is fully open so I was able to run two loops of it without issue. It's just access to it from the Visitor Center is not possible until it looks like end of July. There is nearby street parking if you are like me and prefer to start/end your regular run or walk route from the Visitor Center and that tiny lot is already full :) 

Easy. Has a really nice view. A good loop to just clear your head. Make it feel like you're getting away from the city.

Nothing like a good walk around Discovery Park to break in a new pair of hiking boots.

Starting out from the Visitor Center (beware that the trailhead here is closed due to construction on the Visitor Center, you need to walk up the sidewalk next to the road until you reach the cemetery to meet up with the Loop Trail) I set out to hike in the clockwise direction.

There are a maze of trails in Discovery Park, but fortunately the Loop trail is well marked at its junctions. I took it along the North bluff, where views of the Sound and Olympics are stunning right now, before turning off on the Beach trail to head down to the lighthouse.

The tread is in good shape, though the bottom of the box steps can be a tall step due to erosion. Lots of birds out and about, and it looks like the salmonberries will be ripe soon.

Circling the lighthouse, I headed up onto the South Beach Trail to get back up to the Loop trail. The trail was wet and muddy in places, as it always seems to be, but I was thrilled to see new trail structures in place of the old stairs that were falling in.

To finish up my day, I detoured to Daybreak Star Cultural Center to check out the Wolf Tree Nature Trail (which doesn't seem to have its own WTA entry). This trail could definitely use some love. The surface is a mix of bark and puncheon through the boggy areas, but its gotten very brushy and grown in. The skunk cabbage are enormous, though!

Finally, I caught the 33 and headed home.