Located in the Church Creek community of Stanwood is where I stumbled upon Church Creek Park a…read morecouple years ago. Luckily I was traveling and had my DSLR on me. I pulled over to take impromptu portraits during the fall because the backdrop of the tall, lush trees were beautiful. There is a playground here but what drew my attention was the forest area on the far right side. I don't even think it was an area we were supposed to be in but it seemed like a nice untouched area full of greenery. Again, perfect for taking photos. Actually, most parts of Washington is naturally gorgeous - wish we had more options like that here in SoCal.

Church Creek Park has a welcome sign along the entrance on 72nd Avenue NW and a main parking lot…read morewith three areas. The two areas closest to the entrance are open to everyone and the area closest to the playground and baseball field is handicap parking only. A landscaper was mowing a large grassy field across from the parking areas, later in my visit police officers came just checking in. I arrived around 8:56 a.m. to a few cars in the parking lot and when I left about 22 minutes later the number of cars had approximately doubled. In addition to the large grassy field across from the parking area, the park has a large playground that includes swings, a small basketball court, a baseball field, and a covered picnic area furnished with some picnic tables. A trail system through the trees is speckled with disc golf "holes" as part of a disc golf course. One of the other people using the park had a frisbee and was using the course, it was the first time I had seen disc golf in action. Small flowers were blooming along the trails and I saw a variety of birds including red robins out foraging together and a colorful bird I had not seen before. Fun place to come and take a walk in nature and go for a swing on the swing set.

Gissberg Twin Lakes used to have many trees on the outside border of the North Lake. It also used…read moreto have a thick border of trees on the far west end which gave the illusion of a whole forest behind the two lakes. This westerly view was wonderful on a clear day with a setting sun. Eagles used to perch on the west-side trees and on the north-side trees looking for fish in the lakes or acting as sentries. Now, all of those two tree groves are greatly diminished. What is causing this? LOW INCOME HOUSE COMPLEXES, now being the priority of Snohomish County, have been built around the north end, and the housing is expanding. Also expanding is a road which will be an extension of 27th Avenue Northeast in the Marysville Lakewood Neighborhood, which will require tearing down many more trees.

This is a perfect place for a stroll and pretty pictures. However, would reccomend smth for kids…read morelike small park.

The dog park and path to its location are not well-marked. It's about 1/3 of a mile from the…read moreparking lot, and I'm not sure we could have found it if another person (who was visiting for the second time) had not pointed us in the right direction. When we arrived, there were approximately 3 other dogs there . It's really a large park (and it has a contained area for smaller dogs inside). It was early September and, as such, was dry and dusty. Still, if you didn't have a fenced yard or safe space to let your dog run, I can see how it would be a nice option to have.

After schlopping through the mud, arrived in tall grass with wonderful trails. Let dog off leash…read moreand the first person I meet chastises me for letting dog off leash outside off leash area. Dog loved the free run. Never did see off leash area as was with friend who couldn't cross muddy entrance due to disability. Very disappointed. People who planned this dog park must have cats!

If this is the park we were at...um, there was a playground for my niece and some open space for…read morethe doggo to run. Nice spot along the Skagit river. We saw a bunch of freight trains go by, super amusing for adults and two year olds, btw. There was a picnic shelter, benches, and public restrooms.

This park has a safe needle drop site in the bathroom, yet no children's changing tables..... does…read morethis make sense to anyone else???! I would not recommend eating at the picnic tables, that is now where the diapers get changed! That being said it is a beautiful park. The playground is well maintained and up to date. It has a saw dust base, small plastic rock wall to climb up, latters, log roll, slides, swings etc. All next to the Skagit Play Fields.

This park entrance passed the wooden bridge didn't look like it was maintained. The trail inside…read morewas very mysterious. Each turn I felt like a creepy person was going to emerge from the shrubbery. The one paved trail on the outside before your walk pass the bridge that runs along the river feels safer. Many people walk there. Osprey were diving into the river which kept us watching for about 15 minutes. A bald eagle swooped along the area. If you ignore the sewage plant it's ok to walk for about 30 minutes then you want to get out of there. I might go back but I'm sure parking will be a hassle because the parking lot is like 0.1 miles from the bridge. If you drive pass the parking lot which holds 10 cars or so then you need to reverse back or U-turn carefully back the parking lot. If you don't like to reverse drive then be very aware of the parking lot. ENJOY!

With covid and social distancing I've been seeking out new places to walk. It's been awhile since…read moreI've been out this way, but it seems drastically different from when I was here last. I read an article saying that a Discover Pass was now required for a parking lot near here, but I was not able to find this parking lot. The parking lot I did use appeared to be free and was a teeny bit of a walk down a paved road with no sidewalks to the park. This nature area seems a bit out of place here as it is mostly hidden behind some industrial buildings, but really is a cool place to check out. The bridge appears to signify the entrance to the island. There were a few sketchy looking cars parked closest the entry, but this area seemed to imply parking was not allowed. Across the bridge there is a porta potty, but it was pretty disgusting. You can also access the park entrance by walking along the Langus river trail. We opted to make a loop to the park by walking to the bridge via the trail and then going back to the car via the road. Once on the island you have the option to go left or right, left appears to be towards a hunting area. There were no hunters when we visited and it was still a nice area to check out, but the actual walking area is a loop to the right. This area has some nice bridges to cross and pretty views. You can see an old closed off boardwalk that shows a little of what the area was like before. We saw lots of cool birds and few people, this was a great walk on a sunny day. There's some benches, we might bring a picnic next time.

Great place to take your kids. New special playground and a skate park as well. There's a small…read moretrail system, which is great for little ones to get them into nature. Only downside is no view of the water.

The south Whidbey park and recreation district takes extremely well care of the facility's they are…read morebeautiful every time I'm here, and while the youngster is at practice for 2 hours there's awesome trails to hike through the woods if you choose. I value the care and beauty here we're pretty lucky and if you choose to stay and watch practice the other littles can exert all there energy on the fabulous play ground in line to see everything going on at once pretty cool

Right now, there is a little disruption on the grounds for some kind of new or update to an area…read moreright out in front of the lodge. Really like the lodge at this site where they host the Kiwanis Salmon bbq every year during tulip days.

This place is so nice for a walk, the activities offered here are amazing and I've even seen a few…read moreweddings happening on my way through the park area to get to the more wooded area I like to walk around to get my steps in

Brought my 2.5 year old son old while visiting and we loved it! Very clean and newer equipment…read more Also, there's a nature trail behind the park that is nice! I highly recommend.

I used to love going to this park with my dog because there aren't many large areas I can play…read morefetch with her until I went there today and noticed that they had put up a sign that dogs were no longer allowed on the baseball field. This is frustrating as a tax paying member of the community. I understand that the high school likes to use this park to play and that as a player it would be annoying to find dog waste on the field. HOWEVER, I don't think that banning dogs from the softball field is the answer. All members of the community should be able to use the park as they see fit. Especially considering this is a public park - not owned by Mount Vernon High School.