The most important thing to remember about the family beach walks at Discovery Park might be this: Remember to pre-register! The naturalist-led explorations of the park's sandy South Beach are free, but space and parking are limited, and the low-tide walks generally fill up days in advance.
Once you're in, the event is a delight, and kids can explore with abandon – well, with responsible abandon. Start at the visitor center, with a talk geared to the preschool set on exploring tide pools without hurting the creatures or their habitat. Kids 8 and up can ride in the park van downhill to the beach, with its glorious mountain views; you're responsible for driving younger ones.
Once we were there, naturalists handed out clear cups to observe our catches safely in water, and the group scattered to look for treasures. We were guided by a generous four naturalists, enough staff that one was always handy to call kids over for an interesting find, answer questions, even proactively offer help to those who looked lost. Once the kids got the hang of the search, they helped each other, too. Over an hour or so, we came across a fine assortment of crustaceans, including an aggressively wiggling red rock crab and a small Dungeness. A highlight was a Shaggy Mouse nudibranch that impressed even our guides.
The beach is easy for little ones to navigate, though naturalists told us there was less to find in the more accessible tide pools. The sea stars clinging to our rocks, for instance, were the size of a fingertip rather than a hand – but that was still plenty to excite our crew. My 7-year-old's favorite, in fact, was one of the tiniest finds, the unusual sight of barnacles waving and feeding on plankton as the water washed over them.
Other tips: Wear appropriate shoes for water and the low but slightly slippery rocks. Bring sunscreen, water and perhaps even a snack.
Discovery Park, 3801 W. Government Way. Meet at the visitor center.
Free; but pre-registration required.
206-386-4236
Editor's note: This updated article first ran in May of 2010.
