Merrill and Ring Creek

Named after one of the region’s timber giants, this is one of many small streams that drain to the “Great Northern” shoreline between Seattle and Everett. It is also one of the very few of them to have a delta with dry land and forest on the seaward side of the railroad tracks. Picnic Point is another. The stream emerges from its culvert, across this small patch of trees and gravel, and then gets detoured behind a small spit before being allowed to drain across the beach at the east end of the point. Like the other stream mouths on this north-facing shoreline between Mukilteo and Everett, the stream has a large intertidal delta – this is probably tied to the lower wave energy (northerlies can be vicious, but are rare) which may allow this kind of feature to persist.