Getaways Remote Picnic Point County Park Beckons Romantics To Its Quietness
If you go: Picnic Point County Park is 8.5 miles north of Edmonds. From Highway 99, turn west at 140th Street Southwest (Shelby Road). Drive to Picnic Point Road, which branches to your right (northwest). Follow this downhill through tree-lined ravine, to the parking lot. Then walk up a ramp over railroad tracks and down to the beach. Hours: 6:30 a.m. to dusk.
-- PICNIC POINT
Picnic Point County Park is made for romantics.
The fine thing about this long curving beach along Puget Sound is that it's a little remote, and tough to find because of recent development near Highway 99 (at least one road has disappeared, according to a local resident). That means the park often is uncrowded - particularly on misty days.
Another fine thing is that there are few amenities - a few picnic tables, no shelters unless you count the two portable potties at the parking lot east of the multi-leveled ramp leading over railroad tracks to beach. So all you get is beach and views. (Until June 15 you also will get outstanding clamming at low tide.)
And what views! To the south, the boulder-and-driftwood breakwater on your left, you see a short stretch of sand and pebbles meandering out of sight, pulling you in that direction, toward the unseen cove bounded by a cliff harboring hillside homes, and lush stands of fir, maple and madrona trees.
A mile to the north, reaching beyond the park boundary and into the mist, is a row of deserted pilings. Farther north, a pair of blackened ship-skeletons, now on undeveloped private land. These souvenirs of an earlier, shipbuilding industry add an unusual dash of exoticism to the place: They suggest shipwrecks - danger and adventure untold.
Across the saltwater you may see the low, midnight-green outline of upper Bainbridge Island, or the tip of Whidbey Island. Certainly you will hear the cries of crows, coots, gulls, songbirds, a raven and a sea lion bellowing to its mate. And you will smell beached kelp, and other sea scents.
Beachcombers are sure to find a pebble, or a clam or mussel shell to carry home to help them recall the day. Others may be content just to feel waterdrops touching their face, to hear sand crunching under their feet.
At Picnic Point, the park for solitary souls, one truly can hear, feel, touch and savor the Great Northwest silence.
Got a great idea for a local getaway? Give us a call at 745-7800 or write to us at Seattle Times Snohomish County Bureau, 1211 164th St. S.W., Suite 101, Lynnwood, WA 98037.