Tag Archives: storm water

Saint Martin’s Prairie & the Abby Cemetery

Saint Martin’s College and Abbey in Lacey has been around since the 1890s. It’s small cemetery is located in a rich stand of woods behind the Monastery and is for members of the abbey, thus the vast majority of the uniformed headstones read Father. The metal gates have two welcoming angels and there is a low stone fence.

The nearby College Regional Storm Facility is like a small, tranquil park with a gravel trail that leads around the full storm water ponds. There were plenty of birds and insects, as well as college students playing Frisbee and riding a bike.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Yauger Park, Olympia

Yauger Park in Olympia has a lovely wetland area that doubles as a storm water retention pond during times of heavy rain. Per their website, the area can hold 27 million gallons of water which is slowly released into Percival Creek and eventually into Budd Inlet. One comment I noted on Yelp said that the rain water will sometimes cover the parking area also, which is better than local streets! The park also has picnic facilities, sports areas and playground equipment.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mill Creek Earthworks Park

On Wednesday I was in Kent and stopped to enjoy the day at Mill Creek Earthworks Park at 742 East Titus, Kent, WA. It was a lovely day and there were baby ducks! The park had good and bad to it.

The Good:

It was designed by Bauhaus Master, Herbert Bayer.
It is a very cool storm water detention system and designed to handle a 10,000 year flood.
It looks like a place that hobbits would live in.
The restrooms have delightful art on them.
It is part of a restoration project.
It connects to other Earthworks Project.
Plenty of free parking.
It was recently restored.
Did I mention the baby ducks? You can see them crossing the trail on the photo above.

The Bad:

The toilets in the women’s room don’t have doors and I really like doors.
The trail was closed, so I didn’t try to go down it.
There was a homemade cross on the site that said “the truth will come out about how you died”. Kind of creepy to me!

So the good out ways the bad and I’d love to go visit again.