Neighborhood-Kids All Local. All for Kids. All the Time.

Boulevard Park

by Ginger Oppenheimer4/4/2008 1:48:07 PM

If you only looked at a map of Boulevard Park, you would be hard pressed to believe this little strip of 14 acres at the edge of Bellingham Bay had much going for it. But you’d be wrong. Boulevard Park is one of the busiest in Bellingham and for lots of great reasons.

Boulevard Park was once an industrial site and there are clues to its past that you can spot if you know where they are (more on that later), but ever since the park was established in 1980, its bayside location has made it a welcome year-round respite for families, kids, dogs, kite-fliers, bikers and runners. Oh yes, and this is truly the ideal sunset-viewing spot in all of Bellingham.

The boardwalk connects Boulevard Park to Taylor Street.

You can drive here, sure, but trail access is easy because the South Bay Trail happens to cross right through the park. You can walk or bike from both the north and south or walk straight down the hill from Bellingham’s South Hill neighborhood. The new Taylor Street dock and boardwalk is a most dramatic approach across the water from the south.

What’s where?
Boulevard Park consists of several disparate pieces: at the north end, high above the park along The Boulevard you’ll find paved trails, parking, an art installation, viewing spots, a picnic pavilion, and a connection to the water-level park via an elevated walkway over the train tracks (and lots of stairs to climb down…or up!).

The main part of this bayside park itself consists of an open expanse of grass and trees, benches, picnic tables, a tot lot for kids to entertain themselves, another art installation, Woods Coffee Shop (the building itself has had several lives—more on that later), several tucked away beaches, a short wooden trestle, a hill for viewing, and the South Bay trail, called the boardwalk, which connects to the Taylor Street Dock at the south end of the park. The dock rises from the water at a steep angle, reaching high ground at a landscaped patio and seating area just south of the Chrysalis Inn and Spa.

At the north end, the South Bay trail cuts directly over the train tracks and heads toward downtown Bellingham along the bay. There are restrooms at both ends of the park (at the south end, they are next to the Chrysalis Inn at the entrance to the Taylor Street dock, not in the park proper). See the map for a visual description of the park.

Things to do
If you aren’t biking from home to the park, be sure to bring the family’s bikes to the park, because although there’s really only one giant loop inside the park, this is a great place for family biking, especially for the little ones. If anything, the tricycle set can pedal like crazy back and forth on the paved trail right in front of the bay. Picnic right there at the tables or on the grass and watch the kids roll down the gentle hill to the trail. The older kids can bike in loops and loops—it will only take minutes; the entire trail is paved inside the park proper. Together, hop on the bikes and head south. Ride over a fun, bumpy wooden trestle, which sports benches and interpretive display markers and connects you to a length of graveled trail on another spot of land. The flat trail continues to the boardwalk over the water—an extension of the Taylor Street Dock.

The playset at Boulevard allows kids to set sail from the safety of the shore.

It’s fun to stop momentarily on this small jut of land, officially called Pattle Point, which has a little hill of elevation and several nature trails. It’s a great spot to temporarily ditch the bikes and head up about 20 feet on the trails for a bird’s eye view of the water and the train tracks, just on the other side. Wow! It’s a wild place to be when a train roars through.

On the south end of Pattle Point, where the boardwalk joins up, you can head down the new stairs to the beach. Called Easton Beach, its location, if you imagine you could see straight up the hill, is almost exactly where Easton Street would meet the water if it actually continued down that far. It’s a great little beach for exploring the water’s edge and playing on the sandstone rocks. Even though it’s an obvious spot to anyone on the boardwalk, hardly anyone heads down there. You’ll also find another small beach just at and below the car entrance to the park. Lots of pebbles to study and toss in the water at this beach, best accessed during low tide.

Art installations
There are two art installations in Boulevard Park. The one up above, which you can see as you drive to and from Fairhaven, is called The Conference Table, where the steel table supports, which hold up monstrously long timbers, are also, above the wood, cut like people sitting across from one another at a long table. This is a fun spot to ask the kids what they imagine those folks are doing…and have been doing since 1980 when the piece of art was installed.

Kids can climb all over the Western Stone Garden at the park.

At the water’s edge sit five granite boulders called Western Stone Garden. The boulders were cut and polished in 1978 and still retain their sheen and—fun for kids—slipperiness! Grass-free zones around each boulder are evidence of this functional art piece as playground since several generations of kids have been tackling the boulders to climb up and slide right off. It’s fun for adults, too. On sunny days, the flat ones soak up the rays and act as warm benches.

Boulevard Park history
The short history of the park goes something like this: from the mid-1800s through the 1950s, Bellingham’s waterfront, where Boulevard Park now stands, was a working, industrial site sporting at one time or another a flour mill, a cannery and tin-can factory, a warehouse, a lumber mill and massive log booms, shipping docks, gasworks, an oil company, and a boiler works. Close by was access to a coal mine. If you’re interested in an excellent in-depth history of the park, look for Brian L. Griffin’s book Boulevard Park & Taylor Avenue Dock…on the Old Bellingham Waterfront at Village Books; check out its review in the Bellingham Herald. Griffin grew up just two blocks up the hill from what is now Boulevard Park; he had a front-row boyhood view of the industrial area as it changed from an eyesore to Bellingham’s most visited park.

Today there are remnants, both large and small, of nearly all of the above industries. The building where the new Woods Coffee Shop is located was the Whatcom Community College pottery studio for many years but was originally a turbine building for the lumber mill. Who can resist this gorgeous re-use of this building? It’s a great meeting spot for everyone, but especially families and kids who can gaze through the fireplace—while the fire is burning—from the inside out to see the water. Winter days are perfect for stopping inside for a hot chocolate (for the kids), a latte (for you), and a midday treat. It’s definitely given new life to this building, which sat vacant for some years after the pottery studio moved.

Just below and slightly north of Woods Coffee, follow a slanting walkway to some wide steps down to the rocks and water. At low tide, barnacled sandstone slabs appear and are a fun challenge for balancing and exploring the intertidal zone. One reminder of the log booms remains here, hidden when the tide is high: a huge iron ring is set deep into the sandstone. It acted as an anchor for the cables and chains holding enormous log booms close to shore. Challenge the kids to find it!

Get coffee and take a walk along the bay in Boulevard Park.

A big ol’ hunk of tin sits in the bay between the boardwalk and the Chrysalis Inn and Spa. Suspiciously rock shaped, but oddly not, it is the result of years of dumping tin scrap and molten solder into the bay from the canning factory. The buildings were demolished in the 1960s, but the “tin rock” is a reminder of that industrial past.

Most of the buildings of this industrial waterfront were built over the water on huge numbers of pilings. When the E.K. Woods mill burned down in 1925, the piles of lumber within the mill fell to the water below and evidence of rows of wood can be seen at very low tide west of the park. Many rows of pilings from this industrial era dot the water, particularly at low tide.

There are two more large remnants of this industrial time, both related to the gasworks industry. Above the park, on the descent to the elevated walkway, look for two buildings. One is a small brick, two-story building that was saved by the parks department simply for its historical value and, from some perspectives, its rough beauty as a manmade artifact. It’s fun to imagine what the glass insulators sticking out of the south face were for. There is a picnic shelter on the top of the second structure. Sitting up there, watching the sunset and having a family picnic wouldn’t lead you to believe you’re sitting on top of a gasworks tank—but that’s what it is, and if you walk toward the elevated walkway, but turn north (right), you can view the tank from below.

Park events
Boulevard Park has, for many years, sported a series of summer concerts run by the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. These five family concerts are wonderful summer-night events running every other Saturday night from mid-June to mid-August. There are children’s games run by the Parks, and what they play all depends on who’s there and what the kids want to play! The Parks Department asks that parents supervise their kids during the games. There are also a few concessions for goodies. The events are 7 to 9 pm. Come early to find a place to park! Check the summer edition of the Parks’ Leisure Guide for each year’s dates of the series and for who’s playing.

The Parks Department also sponsors the annual Dance on the Dock on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend from 6 pm to sunset. This is a great community and family event in a unique location. It’s just music and dancing, but who can resist hopping on the bikes and heading out to the dock for that last hurrah of summer.

The Community Food Co-op offers its everyone-welcome Community Party at Boulevard Park in late July or early August every year (check their website for the date). This family event is really fun for kids. RE Sources teams up with the Co-op to offer its Re-Art tent where kids can use their creativity to make old stuff into something new. Then one of the bands leads a kids’ parade. It’s short and sweet—just the right length for the kids. Music of all kinds plays all afternoon and there’s lots of space for dancing in the sun. Burritos and Mallard ice cream round out the perfect summer afternoon.

Summer stages for music have always been temporary affairs, but plans are underway for a permanent covered stage to be erected at the north end of the park starting in August 2008.

The dock and boardwalk is a great place to skate, bike, and walk.

Fourth of July fireworks
While not officially a park event, this is one of the premier spots for viewing the Haggen Fireworks over Bellingham Bay on the Fourth of July. Packed every year, it’s good to get here early, enjoy a barbeque and picnic for the holiday and then settle in with blankets and warm jackets for the show, which doesn’t begin till 10:30 PM when it’s finally dark. BOOM BOOM BOOM! And you know you’re about to see a treat. This is about as close as you can get—it’s a thrill for everyone. 

Railroad tracks
A word of caution. Railroad tracks run right through this park and in several cases you’re completely exposed to the fast-moving trains. Watch carefully as you enter the park in your car, since you’ll cross the tracks right there, although this is an official crossing with crossing arms that come down. At the north end of the park, look both ways when you’re walking, biking, or running the trail since you cross these tracks without railroad guards or crossing arms of any kind. The nature trails above Pattle Point also put you in close contact to the rushing trains below.

Additional information

• Volunteering. Families, school classes, neighbors can volunteer to keep Boulevard Park clean and trails maintained.
• Full list of park features.
• Bellingham Trail map. All Bellingham’s parks and trails.
• Boulevard Park, South Bay Trail, and Village Green trails only.

Park entrance is at State Street and Bayview Road (where S. State Street becomes 11th Street).

A Note About the Author: Ginger Oppenheimer

Ginger Oppenheimer has lived in Bellingham for nearly 25 years and is an avid year-round trail runner. She usually can't wait for winter so she can skate ski with her husband. Ginger works in editing and marketing. Dark chocolate is the key to her happiness.