Martha Lake Airport Community Park

 I made three attempts to buy a new local street map at service station. No maps or state maps only. After the third try, it started to dawn on me that this was probably due to GPS, smartphones, Google maps.

So I tried a Barnes & Noble to replace my 2003 Rand McNally map. Well, none of my favorite brand. I purchased 3 local area maps, not dated, but I see the Seattle one has the new downtown sculpture park. I should be good.

Then I took out the one for my area, discovered a new park, Big Rock Park. However, it seems that my new map is actually more outdated than my old one. The current park name is on my old map, Martha Lake Airport Community Park.

The Big Rock

The big rock in the park is one of the largest glacial erratic boulders in urban King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. The retreating ice sheet dropped this massive rock at its current location about 12 thousand years ago. It is a magnificent reminder of our region's recent glacial past.

An erratic is a piece of rock that has been eroded and transported by a glacier to a different area, then left behind when the ice melted. Glacial erratics give us information about the direction of ice movement and distances of transport. Glacial erratics can be any size from small pebbles to large boulders the size of a house.