Nisqually Beach LbNA #5088 (ARCHIVED)

NISQUALLY BEACH


Placed by: Fudrick
Placed on: August 3, 2003
Nearest City: Lacey, Washington
County: Thurston
Clues: Easy
Terrain: Forest paths on side of gully, ups and downs
Stamps: Marginally Adequate

Nisqually Beach is the home of Tolmie State Park, a 105-acre marine day-use park with 1,800 feet of saltwater shoreline on Puget Sound. This forested park offers a variety of beachside activities, features and an underwater park built by scuba divers for scuba divers, a saltwater marsh, a beach, a forest, three miles of hiking trails, and abundant wildlife. Displays on the beach and in the upper picnic areas describe the evolution/ecology of the shoreline and the history of the park. The park is named for Dr. William Frazer Tolmie (1812-1866) who spent 16 years with the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Nisqually as a physician, surgeon, botanist and fur trader. This is a day-use only park, summer hours are 8:00 AM until Dusk. There is a $5 parking fee in effect, or use your statewide parking sticker. The park has no camping on land. Five mooring buoys are available for boaters who wish to tie up and camp overnight on their boats.

Tolmie State Park is near the epicenter of the February, 2001, earthquake. They are still completing repairs, but the park is open for your enjoyment.


TO THE PARK:

Official State Directions: Located eight miles northeast of Olympia, Wash. From I-5: Take exit #111, and follow signs to park, approximately five miles.

To get to Tolmie, take Exit #111 off I-5 and head North on Marvin Rd. Drive approximately 4 miles to the stop sign and turn right onto Hill Street. Follow Hill Street until it ends at the Park Entrance. Enjoy the history and information at the upper parking lot, but you will want to park in the lower parking lot.

CLUES:

Time to enjoy the beach later, there are priorities! Head to the forest end of the lower parking lot. Read all the information on the roofed readerboard. Head up the trail, after a ways you will thankfully find a bench on your left. After that arduous trek, have a seat and rest. Stand up and take the trail straight ahead of you. After a while, it will appear that you are going to walk into a gnarly tree leaning to the right, between two stumps. Tol is in a cubby at the base of the trail side of the stump. Seeing how it is close to the trail, be sure to hide Tol well.

Continue on the trail. You will get to an intersection, take the Loop with only one arrow. You will come to another intersection, take the pointless trail. Oh No! It looks like a road up ahead. You will see a fence on the left, look behind the tree on the right for Mie.

Now go back and enjoy the beach.

Before you set out read the waiver of responsibility and disclaimer.

www.geocities.com/fudrickus/nisqbea.html