Beautiful South King County

A large dairy farm in South King County, near Enumclaw

Beautiful South King County.

The words don't seem to go together very well, do they.

King County is the most populated county in Washington, and it is where Seattle it located. The southern part of King County is referred to as "South King County", or sometimes the "South End".

As anyone who has lived in the Seattle area knows, South King County is often considered to be the armpit of the suburbs -- only several degrees better than Seattle's industrial sister city, Tacoma (and I like Tacoma).

Santa in July -- a car lot attraction, Renton

And South King County has its reasons for the reputation... All one has to do is take a look down the Green River Valley -- that vast sea of warehouses, industries, Boeing plants (three of them), strip malls, business parks, railroad tracks, freeways and medium and low cost housing -- one will readily see why South King County has a lower reputation than the Eastside or Seattle itself, where people are generally middle and upper middle class.

I'm proud to be from South King County, and proud to live here. It's the real area of the Seattle metro.

Downtown Renton

My home town Renton started out as a coal mining town, and then became an extension of the Boeing plant that churned out WW2 B-29 Superfortress bombers by the hundreds; and then churned out 707's, 727's, 737's, and 757's. It has a plant that used to make rail cars, but now assembles Kenworth diesel trucks.
 
Renton is still an industrial town, as are Kent and Auburn. To our west are the middle and working class suburbs (Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way), which contain several hundred thousand people, many of whom work in Seattle, Tacoma, or in the industrial areas of the Green River Valley.

Rural road in South King County, near Cumberland

South King County is full of immigrants. It is the most ethnically and culturally integrated metro area in the United States.

In other big cities, the immigrants and cultural groups tend to stick together in neighborhoods. Here where I live, the neighborhoods have people from different cultural groups all living next to each other. Nearly one third of the roughly 800,000 people who live in South King County are immigrants.

Scenic county road in South King County, near Enumclaw

Although South King County is a large conglomerate of working class suburbs, there is beauty here.

BNSF Railroad at Kanaskat, in Cascade Mountains -- 40 km SE of Seattle

Just 30-40 km E and SE of Seattle, one can find large tracts of forest (like shown in the picture above) where very few people live, and the countryside looks similar to how it did 75-100 years ago.

 

Nearby, there are small towns that used to be coal mining and lumbering villages -- places like Selleck, Cumberland, Black Diamond -- towns which still have a rustic, rural atmosphere.

But one doesn't have to go that far from civilization to see nature in South King County. The Cedar River Trail is an 15+ km long trail that goes through woods; past parks and ponds, and connects with another trail that goes further into the foothills. The entire trail is surrounded by neighborhoods and some farms.

Cedar River Trail, near Renton

There is another trail, the Interurban Trail, which goes from Tukwila south through the Green River Valley. One can see industrial parks, trees, ponds, some farms and fields, as well as parts of three cities.

Cedar River, near Renton

 South King County has all four main rivers in the Seattle area: the Green River, which goes through a long valley; the Cedar River; the White River; and the Duwamish River, which starts in Renton.
 

The Windmill in Selleck

Throughout this post are photos I've taken of various scenic placed in South King County. When I need to get away from the city, all I have to do is drive south and east -- and within 30-40 minutes I'm in rural areas that have farms and trees.

Open field in South King County, near Krain, WA

If I need a quick breather from the city, I just bike the Cedar River Trail. But if I want to get away from it all, I just drive southeast.

Old 1920's era gas station, Krain, WA

South King County doesn't have the tourist attractions that Seattle does. But it has a lot that Seattle doesn't have: real nature, usually just a short drive away.

A beaver's pond near Renton

Not all areas of southern King County have such nature readily available, but most areas are within a couple miles from Puget Sound beaches, or natural areas of various types. Often when I see photos of other major U.S. metro areas, I feel fairly lucky to live in the area where I live.