Seahurst Creek

I'm not sure what this creek is really called, but given that it ends in Seahurst Park and has no other obvious name that I am aware of, this one makes sense. Interesting contrast to this past weekend's Carkeek Park post). Both are small streams on the eastern shore of the main basin of Puget Sound. Piper's Creek reaches sea level landward of the coastline and, at least before the Great Northern was built, may have had a small drowned valley estuary at it's mouth. Seahurst Creek reaches the Sound in a fairly steep valley (remember, click on title of the post to get map/aerial view) and spills out across the beach in a small delta and the only "estuary" is the series of small pools that form behind the small spit at it's mouth.

Not many streams along this shoreline preserve the dynamic nature that probably once characterized all of them. The next creek north emerges from a pipe that runs beneath the monster house built on the original stream mouth. Some emerge in riprap channels. But few have the freedom that this one has to build, erase, and rebuild spits every couple of years. Funny that this is the only one that really fills up with kids in nice weather (all trying to re-engineer it - some sort of natural human propensity to build bridges and dams and levees).

Seahurst Park Web Site