Start at the south end, where a boardwalk crosses a reclaimed peat bog inside Roxhill Park, and the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail feels like exactly what its name promises. A quiet four mile stretch of wetland, native plantings, and birdsong tucked into a corner of West Seattle most drivers never notice. Walk about half a mile north and the trail does something no interpretive sign really prepares you for. It cuts directly through the parking lot behind Total Wine & More.
That is not a design flaw. It is close to the whole point of this stretch of West Seattle. The last year and a half of visible change along this exact corridor, in Roxhill Park's wetlands, in Westwood Village's storefronts, and on the buses that run past both, says something true about how High Point, Westwood, Fairmont, and Belvidere actually function day to day. Commerce and habitat here are not on opposite ends of a commute. They share a curb cut.
The Bog Got a Party, Not Just a Cleanup
The wetland at Roxhill Park covers about 5.3 acres and forms the headwaters of Longfellow Creek, and possibly Fauntleroy Creek as well. For years the bog had been drying out under decades of urban runoff, losing the peat layer that once defined it. Volunteers with the Duwamish Alive Coalition, American Rivers, and the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association have been working alongside the city to capture and filter stormwater and replant the wetland with native species.
In February 2026, that work reached a milestone worth marking. Neighbors gathered at what organizers called a restoration celebration for the bog, and the High Point Open Space Association's trail notes put the scale of the effort in real numbers: more than 250,000 native plants have gone back into the ground where the historic peat bog once stood.
The wetlands at Roxhill Park form the headwaters of Longfellow Creek, and possibly also Fauntleroy Creek.
This matters beyond the trail itself. Roxhill Bog is not a scenic backdrop. It is the actual source of the water that eventually reaches the creek running past yards and streets for the next four miles. The stewardship keeps going without a special occasion, too. Roxhill Park Champions meet at the park restrooms at 9 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month to pull invasive species and maintain native plantings, and anyone is welcome to show up.
Then the Trail Walks You Into a Total Wine Parking Lot
Continue north from the bog and the trail markers guide walkers straight through the asphalt of Westwood Village, the open air shopping center anchoring the south end of West Seattle. This is not a workaround the trail takes to avoid the mall. It is routed through it, by design, because that is where the creek itself runs.
The retail side of that lot has turned over more in the past year and a half than most residents probably tracked in real time. Total Wine & More opened in the former Staples space in May 2025, after West Seattle Blog had been following the buildout through city permit filings for more than a year before the doors opened. Then in January 2026, after a one week delay from its original target of January 5, a UPS Store finally opened next to what had been a paint and sip studio. For West Seattle residents who lost easy Amazon return access when the Jefferson Square location dropped its UPS affiliation back in 2023, this closed a real gap. Before January 2026, the next closest UPS Store option was in Burien.
One tenant is still missing. Permits and door notes pointing to a Panda Express had already been circulating for months by March 2025, according to West Seattle Blog. As of this writing, the space still sits unopened, well over a year after neighbors started watching the door for signs of movement. It has become a running joke in the neighborhood, the kind that only makes sense if you have actually stood in that parking lot waiting.
The lot hosts its own calendar too, separate from anything happening at the bog a few hundred feet away. On August 22, Westwood Village held its annual End of Summer Festival right there in the parking lot, a free community event with crafts, games, a balloon artist, and a live DJ running from noon to 3 p.m.
The Repaving Project Rerouting Buses Near the Trail
The changes are not limited to storefronts. Starting in April 2026, SDOT began a repaving project along SW Barton, the street bordering both Westwood Village and Roxhill Park, with work expected to continue into fall. Because the project affects the bus layover zone alongside the park, King County Metro rerouted buses that normally travel SW Barton onto SW Trenton instead, as part of Metro's twice yearly service change.
That reroute lands directly on Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex, the regional sports fields on the north side of Trenton where West Seattle Junction FC and Rhodies FC have been playing through the summer. Anyone walking or driving near the trail's southern access points this season should expect different traffic and parking patterns than in past years, at least until the repaving wraps up.
Four Miles Later, There's a Beaver
North of Westwood Village, the trail winds through residential streets before reaching a trailhead just east of Chief Sealth High School, where the creek reappears from underground into daylight at a wheelchair accessible sensory garden. From there, walkers cross the Fishbone Bridge, an enclosed bridge with open walls built to resemble a salmon skeleton, before arriving at Dragonfly Pavilion and its neighboring Dragonfly Garden.
The trail's northern end sits at SW Yancy Street, home to the creek's resident beaver, just north of the West Seattle Golf Course and the community of High Point. High Point residents do not even need to drive to reach it. A staircase at the northeast corner of Bataan Park drops right onto the trail.
For a creek that spends its middle mile weaving through a shopping center loading zone, that ending is almost startling. Longfellow Creek is one of four creeks that still flow year round within Seattle city limits, and one of only four remaining salmon runs left in the city.
Walking It This Fall
A few practical notes for anyone planning the full four miles before the wet season sets in for good:
- South trailhead: Roxhill Park, 2850 SW Roxbury St, reachable by King County Metro's RapidRide C Line.
- From High Point: take the staircase at the northeast corner of Bataan Park to drop onto the trail directly.
- North end: Dragonfly Pavilion, near SW Yancy Street.
- Loop back: catch the C Line or H Line near Avalon back to Westwood Village and your car.
- After heavy rain, expect the low sections near Roxhill Bog to get wet and boggy.
- To pitch in on wetland maintenance, join Roxhill Park Champions at the park restrooms, 9 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month.
None of this shows up on a map that only marks parks green and parking lots gray. But if you live in High Point, Westwood, Fairmont, or Belvidere, this corridor, bog to beaver, is probably already part of your week, whether you are walking a dog, picking up a return at the UPS Store, or waiting at a bus stop that just moved a block over.
At Hines Group, we pay attention to a neighborhood's small, unglamorous shifts as closely as we track its market ones, because the two rarely stay as separate as they look on paper. If you are curious what a season of change like this means for your own street, or you are simply thinking ahead about what comes next for your home, we would be glad to talk. Request a Complimentary Home Consultation whenever the timing feels right for you.
