Andy’s Marine Park
Hike to a cove and beach on Anderson Island
Quick Facts:
Location: Anderson Island
Land Agency: Anderson Island Park and Recreation District
Round Trip: 1.5 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 190 feet
Contact: Andy’s Marine Park
Detailed Information: Urban Trails Tacoma (Mountaineers Books)
Notes: dogs prohibited. Trails can be slick in wet weather
Access: From Anderson Island Ferry Terminal drive west on Yeoman Road for 0.8 mile bearing left onto Eckenstam Johnson Road. Then continue 1.4 miles and turn right onto Sandberg Road. Drive 0.8 mile and turn left onto Claussen Road. Continue 0.4 mile to parking and trailhead on your right.
Good to Know: kid-friendly, snow free winter hikes, beachcombing
This lovely park was a gift to the people of Anderson Island from Andrew Anderson, an island pioneer and founding commissioner of the island’s park and recreation district. It has since been enlarged to 81 acres and includes a .75 mile stretch of beach. Start your hike traveling through an impressive forest that includes Oregon ash and some large madronas. Thick rows of evergreen huckleberries line the way. The trail steadily loses elevation coming to a junction. The quickest way to the beach is straight ahead. The trail right passes through a grove of old growth trees then teeters on a bluff above Carlson Cove and reconnects to the main trail. The trail to your left, the Lower Lagoon Trail is a slightly longer route to the beach.
Where the main trail and Old-growth Trail meet again the way makes a short little climb before steeply descending to the cove. Here a floating bridge aided by pontoons will help get you safely and dry across the cove to a sandy spit on the Nisqually Reach. Look for eagles in the surrounding trees and fishing for salmon below in the lagoon. The longer trail comes in from the left. It travels along the spit offering good cove views and Washington Water Trails’ campsites (reserved through the park district) for kayakers and canoeists.
Lounge around the sandy and cobbled beach and enjoy good views out to Mount Rainier, the Olympics and Johnson Point. Tolmie State Park (see my Urban Trails Olympia) lies directly across the reach. If the tide is low, cross the cove outlet (which will get your shoes wet, but it’s easily negotiable) and walk north along a wide and mainly cobbled beach. Most of the way is below bluffs. The beach is public for ¾ mile, but the surrounding uplands is private, so respect all property postings. Watch for seals, and a wide array of birds and watch your step as you walk across flats often teeming with sand dollars.
For detailed descriptions (including maps) for this hike as well as others in Tacoma, Lakewood, Auburn, Federal Way, Enumclaw, Puyallup and Maple Valley, pick up a copy of my best selling Urban Trails Tacoma WA (Mountaineers Books).
