Getting out to explore on a rainy weekend
A visit to the Kukutali Preserve State Park Heritage Site
Located just northwest of the Washington State town of La Conner, this small park is on Swinomish Tribal land. It was traditionally used as a gathering place for harvesting food – shellfish, salmon, ducks, elk. The name Kukutali means “place of cattail mats”, as they dried cattail leaves and wove them into mats here.
It was a dreary weekend, nothing but heavy gray skies and rain, with new storms blowing in from the coast. Still, we decided to take a drive and check out this park that we had overlooked before. It’s always great to get out of town and up into the big open farmlands and tidal flats of the Skagit Valley, just an hour or so north of Seattle.
We parked in the small lot at the trail head, hung the state Discover Pass on the mirror, and walked the straight path down to the water, crossing a spit between a lagoon and the Similk Bay. Signs warn of the spit being covered when tides rise, but we found the tides were currently receding. The very short trail takes you across the spit and climbs gently into the forested part of Kiket Island. It brings you down to sea level at the west end where you can walk out onto another spit full of drift logs. We could see the high bridge at Deception Pass in the distance. The trail here stops short of the furthest outcrop of rock, called Flagstaff Point. The water on the sound side was white capping from the steady wind, while the eastern side was somewhat calm and protected.
Just before the spit there was a large day use area with covered picnic tables. The maple trees have dropped their giant golden leaves on the trail. Despite the rain and cold wind, we were dressed for it and felt great, invigorated by the salt air.
A few miles up the road we turned back toward La Conner, stopping to look at an Indian Shaker Church just off the road (still reservation land). It was in very poor shape, and I doubt it is used anymore, though I believe the religion continues. The shaker religion is an offshoot of Christianity, started by the Squaxin Indian shaman John Slocum and his wife in 1881. I did a sketch of the church.
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