An impromptu Mothers Day visit quickly escalated into an unforgettable day at this gem of a park. We live in Ballard, so Discovery Park, Golden Gardens and Carkeek are all close by, but on this day we decided to visit a new park and we were rewarded handsomely!

First, to our collective surprise, the park was empty at noon on a Mothers Day Sunday. There were at most 10 vehicles in the multiple pocket parking lots available as you descend from the entrance down into the park.

From the lower parking lot, we walked the short paved path to the pedestrian bridge over the rail line. As luck would have it, two trains converged from opposite directions on the main lines just as we arrived. The rumble and whoosh was almost terrifyingly fun! Our sweet 75lb dog was spooked and our 11yo son delighted when the engineers responded to his plea for honked horns.

We then crossed the bridge down to the rocky beach and surveyed the grounds. There we found restrooms as well as a very nice picnic shelter with a fire pit, and a prominent statue anchoring the main area of the park.

As we took in the sights, I overheard someone on the beach yell "Look, a whale!" Sure enough, after a minute or so, the beautiful beast surfaced as it swam seemingly leisurely from South to North not more than 150 to 200 yards from the shore. We were all shouting and pointing, now excitedly moving up the beach to follow it. First the cartoonish spout of the blow hole, and then what I would estimate as a good 20 feet of back breaking the surface as it rolled back under. The folks I overheard suggested it was a Gray Whale, which seemed plausible to me based on size.

After the euphoria of the whale sighting, we happened across driftwood shelters, lots of very interesting rocks on the beach, wild flowers and returned to center of park via the trails through the scotch broom and lone pine tree.

How can you beat that for a 1 hour, in-city beach park visit!