We’re not quite in Seattle, but 20 miles south in Des Moines, Washington, not to be confused with the one in Idaho 🙂
We are staying in the Salt Water State Park Campground on Puget Sound ($25 per night, dry camping). The park and campground are in the process of a much needed restoration. It could be and may have once been beautiful. My bet is it will be again. Our campsite #2 is a quick walk to the water.
Three of the reasons we chose this park are #1 It is less than 10 miles from Seattle-Tacoma Airport. Rowan and Ricky Flew home on Saturday 🙁 #2 It is a very Pet friendly park. There is a dog walk along the water and E T is allowed on the beach. #3 it is less than 10 miles from Pacific Raceways, where the NHRA Northwest Nationals were held this past weekend.
Two of the reasons that we are SLEEPLESS #1 The park is directly on the Airport Flight Line. Every 3 to 5 minutes a plane is coming or going, mostly going, DIRECTLY over our heads.
#2 Thursday night when we were at another campground, The Sunrise Resort, Lake Easton RV Park in Easton Washington, our dog, E T and I were attacked and bit by an unleashed, unattended, Saint Bernard dog that was staying in the site next to ours. E T had to have surgery for multiple bites and had to have a drain inserted. A fellow camper at the Lake Easton State Park Campground. where we had moved after getting bitten, had recommended the Vets For Less Animal Clinic in Federal Way, Washington. He said they were the BEST in the area. We cannot agree more. Vets For Less is 6.5 miles from Salt Water State Park.
E T needs 24 hour watching, so that she doesn’t scratch her wounds, so David went to the drag races by himself on Sunday. He liked the track a lot. It wasn’t a premier track, the seats were mostly bleachers, but there were a lot of them. The racing was premier thanks to cool weather, the track condition and being at sea level. On a whole he thought Pacific Raceway was very comparable to our “home tracks” at Reading and Englishtown. We won’t count the track in Epping, New Hampshire as an acceptable venue until they make a LOT more improvements.
Would we ever return to Salt Water State Park Campground? In a heartbeat. When the staff here saw what had happened to E T they could not have been kinder or more compassionate. We had to stay longer than our reservations, because E T needed to have the drain in at least 4 days. No problem, we stayed on site #2 the whole time. Having the airplanes flying over continuously actually became entertaining and even a bit therapeutic. Some people like listening to the sound of waves splashing on the shore. Listening to airplanes continuously pass overhead is a little like that. The location to the water, airport and downtown Seattle is more than a plus for staying here. When the improvements are completed I can see it being a difficult place to get a reservation. The weekends were full already.
I’m going to toot a horn once again for staying at National and State Parks. They have rules and they enforce them. The Rangers take their motto “To Serve, To Protect and To Preserve seriously. The Ranger assigned to the park and his aide, took extra patrols making sure there were no unleashed dogs. Everyday they came by checking on how E T was doing.