Chambers Creek

Chambers Creek arrives at Puget Sound from beneath a railroad bridge. The stream mouth began as a barrier estuary with a couple of spits at its mouth, still evident in the aerial (click on title of post) and in these photos, though they've been partially lost beneath boat storage sheds and fill. This poor little estuary has suffered more than just the loss of its spits. Its watershed is paved, there is a weir at the head of the small bay that turns the upper estuary into a lake. And the thick forest that once lined its banks is long gone. Industries along its shores have died, only to be replaced by big homes climbing up the surrounding slopes.'

The shoreline for a mile north of the creek used to be high gravel bluffs. What's left of the bluff is now 1/4 mile or more inland and all that gravel is the aggregate in Puget Sound's highways and skyscrapers. But the mining is all done and I understand the new golf course is almost done, too. One of these days I've got to check out the narrow strip of beach left on the west side of the railroad tracks.