Our final hike of 2018 was to Meadowdale Beach Park, which is a little more than 1.5 miles from our home.

We’ve hiked at the park several times but decided we would make this trek a little more challenging by hiking there from our house rather than driving to the trailhead, giving us an extra three miles to work off our Christmas cookies!

We set out around mid-morning and made our way through various neighborhoods, eventually coming to a trail that runs alongside Meadowdale Road and the northern side of  Meadowdale Playfields to 75th Place West, which overlooks Puget Sound.

The road dead ends in a back entry to Meadowdale Beach Park that we’ve never experienced before. This is not a public access point—there were a number of signs redirecting people to the parking and trailhead off of 156th Street SW—but it was a nice variation for us given we were simply on foot and had never entered the park this way!

The paved road wound down through the woods to the trail, which required us to duck into a tunnel under the railroad tracks in order to access the beach. The water running from the woods out to the sound was higher and faster than I’ve ever seen it and rushed under our feet and out into the open water.

A number of people were already on the beach enjoying the day—some had their dogs, others had picnics, and one woman was working on some artwork. The sky was clear and blue to the north but gray and cloudy to the south—Brian took an awesome picture looking out over the water where you can clearly see the blue/gray divide reflected in the sound.

We spent a little time on the beach before finally heading back to the trail and hiking our way back out via the normal path to the public parking and trailhead. From there it was an easy walk back to our neighborhood and home.

Our final hike came in at 6.3 miles and 531 feet of elevation gain—we were feeling good and ready to ring in the new year. Hope you also had a safe, happy and healthy start to 2019!