Wallace Swamp Creek Park
Pass: None Difficulty:1/5 Rating: 4/5
Another day, another outing with the kids! I wanted another SMALL hike I could do with the kids. Doing a little more research I found Wallace Swamp Creek Park. Its in Kenmore, which is a super cute little town. its right on the north part of Lake Washington. This park is pretty small, and doesn’t really have a playground (Although spoiler alert, we went there again and we did find a playground at Kenmore Elementary School, which is near it.) Swamp Creek runs through this park.
There is a small parking lot, but I’ve been both in the summer, and the winter and both times there were plenty of parking spots. Dogs are welcome, but PLEASE keep them on their leashes like the signs that are ALL over the park tell you to do. The paths on this park are part plank, dirt, and paved, but all of them are in great shape. There is the cutest little bridge that you can cross over Swamp Creek. There are picnic tables, and open areas. There are huge tress. It really is a magical little place!
On part of the path there are houses that line it. In a yard there are chickens, and they set up a quarter machine with chicken food that you can feed chickens. The kids LOVED this and it was a definite highlight of this adventure! (Also in the winter we went and we didn’t see the chickens, and the feeder was gone. I’m hoping they took it down just for the winter months, but I will report back on that later!)
After feeding chickens, chasing butterflies, and taking pictures of flowers, we continued on our little trek. There was a nice area just before the bridge that you could play in the water. The water was really calm there and looked like a fun place to swim. There was a man with his dog playing there, so we gave them their space and moved on. Just before that there is a fork in the path, on the way we just went straight over the bridge, but coming back we took that fork. The fork leads to some beautiful trees, and if you keep going past them you come right up to the creek. (We also passed a man reading a book on log that went across the creek.) The kids loved throwing rocks into the creek. Before we left they each found a leaf and threw it in the water. We then ran up to the bridge to watch for our leaves. Surprisingly they made it down to the bridge, and the kids loved that.
I really loved this little haven we found and it made me feel like I was a fairy in my own fairy land. Its small, and quaint, and we probably only walked about 1/2 mile, but it sure was pretty. I am still constantly amazed at the little gems we find in the city! And of course the whole time we were out the kids kept asking me if I remembered my keys, and kept checking to make sure I had them, since our last incident on Saint Edwards State Park!