Naturalist Trip - Meadowdale Beach Park

This trip is primarily for students of the 2026 Moss & Lichen workshop. Other Moss & Lichen badge holders may register on or after March 5. 

The Trip: As naturalists, we often joke that once you get into mosses you're lucky if you can make it past the parking lot on a trip. Let's prove to ourselves that we can ID mosses and get our exercise in for the day! We'll start out with a hike that takes us down a gulch, through a mature second-growth forest, along a babbling brook, past a tidal estuary, and finally out to a Puget Sound beach with great views of the Olympics when the weather allows. Then we'll shift our focus entirely to moss, liverworts, and lichens as we slowly work our way back up to the top of the trail.

The focus of this trip will be to find and identify many of the common mosses and lichens of our region with a goal of becoming more comfortable with identification strategies. This will be a great way to reinforce what was learned in the Moss & Lichen course and expand your knowledge even more! Bring your moss guide provided from the course and a hand lens/loupe. Dress in warm layers, rain gear, and boots that can stand up to a muddy trail. Trekking poles are encouraged, especially if conditions are wet.

The trip will go on rain or shine so be prepared for the weather.

Pace and Terrain: the first part of our trip will be spent hiking 1.25 miles downhill at a brisk pace of 2.0-2.5 mph. The first 0.5 miles of the trail descend sharply with sections of switchbacks and staircases, then it levels off considerably as it starts to follow along Lunds Gulch Creek. In the interest of time, we will not stop to identify moss, liverworts, and lichens in detail on the way down. We will instead appreciate the biodiversity of the mature second-growth forest that surrounds us; admire its towering Bigleaf Maples and Sitka Spruce; and make note of interesting hotspots of mosses and lichens that we want to investigate in detail on the way back up. The faster we get down to the beach, the more time we'll have to practice our moss and lichen skills on the way back! 

After taking a short break for water and snacks at the beach, we will slowly start back up the trail, stopping often to use our moss guidebooks and loupes to identify all the neat things we noted on the way down. Although the final 0.5 miles of trail is quite steep, it's also one of the mossiest part of the trail, so we'll be taking it extra slow. We will aim to arrive back at the trailhead no later than 1 PM.

Check out the WTA trail description for more details about the forest and the terrain. Here is a link to a Gaia GPS map showing the route and elevation profile.

We will first meet at 9:00 AM at the Ash Way Park & Ride (16327 Ash Way, Lynnwood, WA 98037) to form carpools, then drive 15 minutes to Meadowdale Beach Park. We will be geared up and ready to head down the trail by 9:30 AM.

There are portable toilets available at the trailhead, and again 1 mile downhill just before we reach the beach.