Richmond Beach Saltwater Park

Richmond Beach Saltwater Park sits along the Shoreline waterfront, immediately north of Seattle city limits on the eastern shore of Central Puget Sound. Access is unusual. The parking area sits above the BNSF main-line tracks, and the beach entry is roughly a 125-yard walk down through a pedestrian footbridge that crosses the right-of-way. A tank cart is standard practice. Underwater, a large shallow reef sits in about 10 feet of water inshore, and a developed debris field begins around 20 feet and continues intermittently to about 35. Around 45 feet, sections of a cinderblock-and-rope trail and partially covered lengths of large anchor chain run offshore. Between 57 and 60 feet, large concrete anchor blocks with additional chain mark the deeper limits of the developed dive.

The park is owned and operated by the City of Shoreline in the Richmond Beach neighborhood. It carries no marine protected area overlay, and its identity as a dive site rests on the planted debris trail rather than natural rock.

The shallow inshore reef and the debris trail below it together form a rocky reef biome, an engineered one on a soft-bottom shoreline. Rockfish and sculpin are documented across the debris and shallow reef, alongside nudibranchs on the rubble. Scuba is the dominant activity here, at an intermediate level. Current can be substantial, and the site is best dived on slack. The long approach walk from lot to beach is a real physical hazard on gear, and the footbridge is the only legal crossing of the BNSF tracks.

Park hours run 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The lot sits above the tracks, and no facilities are on the beach itself. Marine Area 9 rules govern the water here: rockfish retention and possession are closed, lingcod may be speared only from May 21 through June 15 at a maximum 36 inches and a daily limit of 1, and cabezon is open May 1 through November 30 at a minimum 18 inches and a daily limit of 1.