Home » Travel » Washington State » Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

© Jerri Brooker

There's a place outside of Olympia, Washington, that I describe as heaven-on-earth - a place where wildlife is protected under the auspices of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

It's the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.

Why heaven-on-earth?

If I were to paint a picture of heaven-on-earth, here's how it would begin:

The sun shines over the riparian-forest-surrounded wildlife refuge nestled along the Nisqually River grasslands, among marshes and by Puget Sound. Wildflowers, blooming wild trees, evergreens, marshes, mudflats, hills with nesting great blue herons, grasslands with Canada geese, scores of migrating birds, resident nesting birds and a bald eagle overhead - as idyllic as any nature lover could perceive - thrive in this northwest wonderland.

I would continue:

Though my camera won't catch it, a dinner-plate-sized turtle climbs out of the deep-blue marsh with a baby behind, ready to sun on a dead snag sticking up the bank out of the river. A drake and mallard sit contentedly in the water resting alongside. The site of a baby great horned owl nests in a tree by the Twin Barns area of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in the Nisqually Delta not far from where an otter plays by the water on the five-and-a-half-mile nature walk loop trail known as the Brown Farm Dike Trail.

It's seems as close to heaven as one can imagine. So where is it?

The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge is at the southern end of Puget Sound. It sits between Fort Lewis to the north and Olympia to the south. It forms an undisturbed estuary, the home to wildlife, birds, and fish in marshes, croplands, grasslands, riparian forests, mudflats and Puget Sound. It's a great place to bank fish at McCallister Creek Bank Fishing Area during fishing season. Fishing is also permitted by boat outside the Brown Farm Dike.

For a nature lover, it's as close to heaven-on-earth as one might get.

Recently I visited the refuge. Last week was the day of days for a spring-loving nature walker in the Pacific Northwest, so off I went. It could not have been more beautiful in my eyes, maybe matching the previous week's walk at the ocean beach at Westport.

The Nisqually is the place where you become one with nature. You may take as long as the day is light to see wonder after wonder as you wander the trails. So I do.

I'm armed with my wildflower and bird books, but the sights are so varied and dense that I decide to shoot photos and name the living earth habitat and critters later; there's too much to take in. A "birder" has his large telescope sited on the great blue heron nests; he offers a view. I learn up to 20,000 birds migrate through this area.

The copyright of the article Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington State is owned by . Permission to republish Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.