Exploring Bayshore Preserve Near Shelton

Craig Romano

Occupying a peninsula on Oakland Bay at the mouth of Johns Creek, Bayshore Preserve provides exceptional wildlife habitat and several short delightful hiking trails. Once a golf course that heavily drew water from the salmon-spawning Johns and leached pesticides and fertilizers into the important shellfish rearing bay; now thanks to the Capitol Land Trust, Squaxin Island Tribe and a handful of other partners, this 74-acre parcel has been restored to a natural state on par with the state’s finest natural shoreline preserves.

Hit the Trail

From the trailhead immediately come to a kiosk with a map displaying the preserve’s interconnected short trails. There are about 1.5 miles of marked well developed paths traversing the property and they can easily be covered shortly in a brisk walk. However, Bayshore, with its salmon-spawning creek, salt marshes and mud flats, bird-flourishing prairie, and more than 4,000 feet of shoreline, calls out to be sauntered.

A quick inspection of the landscape before you reveals a land in flux. One that not too long ago sported well-manicured greenways fed by an irrigation system, a clubhouse and other structures, and a series of service roads. Those roads have since been converted into trails. The buildings have been removed, but a few vestiges of the irrigation system that is slowly being dismantled remain. And the greenways have been restored to native prairie grasses that wave golden in late summer.

Now sans golf clubs, putt along Bayshore’s trails watching for birds instead of scoring birdies. The Bayshore Peninsula located along the narrowest stretch of the slender and shallow Oakland Bay is far more important as wildlife habitat than as an altered manicured landscape for golfing.

The peninsula too is a special place to the Squaxin Island Tribe. It once housed one of their villages and according to several elders and historians, one of the largest longhouses on Puget Sound.

In 2014 the Capitol Land Trust purchased the Bayshore Golf Course and commenced with the Squaxin Island Tribe and other partners to restore this property to a natural state.

Restoring the peninsula was another albeit very important stage in the greater effort currently being employed to protect Oakland Bay—one of the least developed inlets and most important shellfisheries on Puget Sound. Oakland Bay’s preservation is not only important for wildlife, but also for sustaining the area’s fisheries and shellfish beds.

The Main Loop Trail travels triangularly through the property for 0.8 mile. It utilizes some of the old golf course’s service roads. Walk the path through native grasses and along colonnades of gigantic old Douglas firs and Garry (Oregon White) Oaks. The latter, the only native oak to Washington State once flourished in the area’s prairies. Washington’s First Peoples regularly set those prairies on fire to stimulate camas growth and favor other plants like oaks that thrive in savannas and other grassy environments. But as those prairies no longer saw regular burns, were overtaken by developments and invasive and hardier plants, the state’s Garry Oaks have become increasingly rare. These elegant hardwoods provide forage for a myriad of species. Bayshore contains some exceptionally large ones.

As you walk the loop be sure to deviate from it onto numerous spur trails. The 0.2 mile Lookout Trail crosses Johns Creek on a sturdy bridge and proceeds through a nice forest grove before skirting a prairie and ending along the creek bank. It’s an excellent trail to check out in November for its chum run.

The Johns Creek Trail is another fine choice for salmon watching. This path meanders along the edge of a riparian forest for .25 mile to link back up with the main loop.

The Johns Creek Estuary Trail leads a short distance to extensive tidal flats at a small estuary where Johns Creek flows into Oakland Bay. The trail leads to a fishing point on public tidelands.

Bayshore Preserve

Features: exceptional wildlife habitat on Oakland Bay, restored prairie, tall old Garry oaks and Douglas firs,

tidal mud flats, salmon-spawning creek and estuary.

Distance: 1.5 miles of trails

Elevation Gain: minimal; High Point: 40 feet

Difficulty: easy Snow free: year round

Trailhead Pass Needed: None

Notes: Dogs permitted on leash. Please stay on trails and respect all closed areas. Open from dawn to dusk. No removal of plants or fungi from the preserve.

GPS waypoints: Trailhead: N47 14.939 W123 02.655

Fishing Point: N47 14.707 W123 02.513

Contact: Capitol Land Trust, (360) 943-3012

Trail Map and Interpretive Guide available online

Trailhead: From Shelton, travel east on SR 3 for 3.8 miles to trailhead located on your right (directly across road from Bayshore General Store). Parking limited. More parking in adjacent WA Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Oakland Bay Recreational Area (Discover Pass required).