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The Sequalitchew Creek Trail has a long and unusual history. Ancestors of today's Nisqually tribe inhabited the mouth of the creek for about 6,000 years and became active traders when the Europeans arrived. In 1832, the Hudson's Bay Company built Nisqually house, the first non-native outpost on Puget Sound. It was soon replaced by Fort Nisqually, now rebuilt at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. In 1907, the DuPont Company purchased about five square miles of the area to build an explosives factory and shipping port. A narrow gauge rail line carried the dynamite train from the plant to the wharf. Weyerhaeuser Timber Company purchased all 3,200 acres from DuPont in 1976, hoping to build a superport. That never happened, and now the creek and canyon are protected.

Sequalitchew Creek has carved out a deep canyon, and the trail follows it from a prairie down to Puget Sound, following the old narrow gauge railway bed.

Immediately before reaching the water, the trail tunnels under the main Amtrak-Burlington Northern line.

The first part of the trail is paved, the rest gravel, with a total drop of 220 feet.

A steep five-mile loop branches south across the creek at the estuary.

At the tunnel exit, a beach trail heads a short distance north along the remains of the wharf. I recommend fat tires.

The wharf for the dynamite train is gone, but the tracks still try to reach it.

and back to Dupont City Hall.

It's a steady climb back out the canyon