Carkeek Park, Urban park in north Seattle, United States
Carkeek Park covers 216 acres in Seattle's Broadview neighborhood, where Pipers Creek and its tributaries Venema and Mohlendorph creeks cut a steep canyon down to Puget Sound. A six-mile trail network links saltwater beach, riparian and wetland habitat, upland forest and meadow, and passes Piper's Orchard and the Demonstration Gardens.
The park preserves Piper's Orchard on the eastern slope, where heritage fruit trees date back to early settlers in the area. This location shows how the land was used before becoming a park.
Chum salmon returned to Pipers Creek in 1987 after a 50-year absence, following restoration begun in 1979 by the Carkeek Watershed Community Action Project with the Suquamish Tribe and city agencies. Volunteers now watch the run each November, and the creek's Lushootseed name, kʷaatəb, means "place where people are sent."
The pedestrian bridge over the BNSF Railway tracks connects the park to the sand beach on Puget Sound. The bridge was built in 1956. Restrooms are near the pump station by the beach.
The beach was once the site of a sawmill, replaced in 1920 by a fish ladder that stood until 1932. The pedestrian bridge over the BNSF Railway, built in 1956, is the only way down to the sand.
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