Dash Point State Park, the Yosemite of Puget Sound! Well, not even close. It has a more modest presence compared to many of the spectacular parks in Washington. However it does have several features that make it a very nice place to visit. It's personality comes from being perched on the edge of steep-sided glacial debris hillside and deeply cleaved by a creek which has deposited the canyon contents into a large flat delta. This delta is huge at low tide and besides being a great playground, makes for one of the best skim boarding destinations in Puget Sound. At least at low tide that is. At high tide it feels like the water is going to squeeze right up into the parking lot.
The park is heavily wooded with numerous quiet trails for walking or mountain biking. Yes, biking. Local walkers are mostly supportive of the biking because they know it's the bikers along with other volunteers who maintain the trails, and more importantly, clear the logs after storms.
Go uphill from the campground and things get quiet fast. Really old large stumps (with plank notches) persist here and there from the first logging of the virgin forest. It is now mostly grown up with alders, maple, and cottonwood (with douglas fir, hemlock, and cedar sprinkled in) with an understory dominated by salal, salmonberry, indian plum, and sword ferns. Numerous windy bike trails were constructed in the Pierce County section before it was included in the park. A trail map here is very useful (available at Phil's Bike Shop).
The crows have a really good time at the beach. They sit patiently in the trees waiting for new arrivals er, victims. As soon as one heads off to the beach the pillaging begins. After a busy day the surrounding woods are littered with all kinds of shredded shiny wrappers. Prevalent but not alway visible are coyotes, foxes, mountain beaver (not a beaver), skunks, opposum, squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons. Notably absent are deer, grouse, and quail. Native birds are usually around but often hard to see in the thickets they like so much.
In December of 2006 the park was slammed by the Hanukkah eve storm, the second most powerful recorded storm to hit the Pacific Northwest (see Cliff Mass). The campground area was hit suffered the most and in many places there were so many downed trees one could not find the road while standing on top of it. I suspect the habits of clearing out the large deciduous trees which can be summer hazard with heavy leafed out limbs while leaving scattered large doug fir trees contributed quite a bit to the damage. The scattered firs had little protection and went down in large numbers. Further into the park where the conifers could grow tighter together as is natural the damage was much less. Curiously the cottonwood tree I took a daily photo of survived that storm only to break in half the following fall in a smaller storm. I have nearly a years worth of photos before it broke that will make a nice little movie with a dramatic ending.
This page is a personal project that will expand as time permits. I already have photos of most of the native plants and animals, as well as activities that occur in the park. Coverage will include Browns Point, Dash Point Park (fishing pier), Dash Point State Park, Dumas Bay, Dash Point Highlands City Park.