King County-Carnation partnership leads to new trail with safe access to park, regional trails

Carnation-area residents now have a safe and convenient way to walk, run or ride from the downtown retail core to King County’s Tolt-MacDonald Park – and beyond.

King County has constructed a new, 1,100-foot-long trail that creates a loop which pedestrians, cyclists and others can take from West Entwistle Street in downtown Carnation to the shores of the Snoqualmie River and upstream to Tolt-MacDonald Park.

County and City officials will be on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, July 1 at 9 a.m. at the Tolt-MacDonald Park end of the new trail.

The trail was constructed as a result of a meeting earlier this year between County Executive Dow Constantine and Carnation Mayor Lee Grumman.

“This was a creative idea brought to me by Mayor Grumman during my visit to the Snoqualmie Valley cities,” Executive Constantine said. “It shows the power of partnership and communicating with each other – how doing something that is relatively simple on our part can make a big difference in the life of a local community.”

“This new trail provides our west side neighborhood, which has no developed parkland, with a backyard pathway to Tolt-MacDonald Park,” Mayor Grumman said. “This has transformed access to the park from a 30-minute-long walk along a state highway and major arterial to a 10-minute-long walk through publicly owned open space. There are tens of thousands of visitors to Tolt-MacDonald Park each year, and this trail provides easy, non-vehicular access into town and creates a beautiful pathway to get there.”

The trail features a new interpretive kiosk that offers information on additional trail connections and recreational opportunities in the area. King County is helping Carnation develop a trail and tourist map and brochure for use in the trail kiosk and elsewhere.

King County and the City shared trail construction costs, which totaled approximately $9,500. Plans are under way for a volunteer planting event along the trail later this year.

More information on King County Parks is available at www.kingcounty.gov/parks/. More information on the City of Carnation is available at http://www.ci.carnation.wa.us/.