Walk the Cedar Loop at Mother Nature's Window this month and you will pass ferns unfurling against old bark, a tree-identification sign nailed at eye level, and a printed reminder to check your shoes for invasive seeds before you start down the path. None of it is dramatic. That is the point. For more than two decades, this exact stretch of second-growth forest in north Marysville sat behind a chain-link fence, and the fact that you can now stand here at all is the result of one family's refusal to sell and a city government that finally found the money to finish what that family started.
Marysville added a second trail worth knowing about this year too, though it never needed rescuing the way Mother Nature's Window did. The Ebey Waterfront Trail has been open for years, paved and flat along Ebey Slough, and it is getting a construction push in 2026 that will close its last gap. Put the two together and you have something the city didn't have twelve months ago: two genuinely different walks, a forest loop and a river path, both within a few miles of downtown, both worth the drive even if you already know every inch of Comeford Park.
The Man Who Wouldn't Sell
The land under Mother Nature's Window has a longer paper trail than most city parks. President Ulysses S. Grant granted the original homestead to John Brady in 1875. Brady later sold a large piece of it to Nicholas Healy, a prominent logger who ran the Marysville-Arlington Railroad and married into the family of Marysville's founder. The forest that stands there today is largely second growth, a legacy of that early logging era.
The person who actually saved it was Merton "Mert" Turk, a local logger who spent decades acquiring pieces of the land and turning it into an informal community gathering space he called Mother Nature's Window. According to a history written by Marysville City Councilmember Peter Condyles, Turk went "toe to toe with housing developers" more than once and won. Snohomish County bought the property from his estate's line of ownership in 1999, and the land was annexed into Marysville in 2009. Crime and vandalism eventually forced the city to fence it off, and it stayed closed for more than 25 years while funding for a real reopening stalled.
Turk died in January 2013. He never saw the gate open again. At the ribbon-cutting this past May, Condyles noted that Turk's obituary ran fewer than 20 words and didn't mention the fight to save the forest at all.
What's Actually on the Ground Now
Phase 1 construction wrapped in early 2026, and the park held its grand opening on May 14. What visitors get today is deliberately modest: accessible walkways and restored trails that follow existing pathways and historic routes rather than cutting new ones, a paved driveway and parking lot with a bus turnaround for school groups, and basic lighting, signage, and landscaping. The Cedar Loop and Fern Trail are the two named routes through the 34 acres, both accessed off Comeford Road.
The project cost $1.47 million, with $750,000 coming from a federal HUD grant and the rest from city funds. Councilmember Condyles pointed out during the ceremony that three elementary schools sit less than a mile from the entrance, which is part of why the city is positioning the park around environmental education as much as recreation. Future phases, still unfunded, are meant to add more programming. For now, what you get is exactly what a 25-year-closed forest needs first: a way in, a way to park, and trails that don't wash out.
If you want the address, the park sits at 9623 55th Ave. NE, and the city's own Mother Nature's Window page has the fuller project history if you want it.
The Trail Across Town That's Already Broken In
Where Mother Nature's Window is upland forest, the Ebey Waterfront Trail is river flat. It runs from the Ebey Waterfront Park boat launch along Ebey Slough toward the Qwuloolt Estuary, a stretch of marshland that spent more than a century cut off from tidal flow behind a levee. The Tulalip Tribes led the effort to breach that levee in August 2015, restoring the estuary after a 20-year, $20 million project. The paved trail that resulted is wide enough for strollers and wheelchairs, and it passes under the State Avenue bridge with views that stretch to the Olympic and Cascade ranges on a clear day. Birders come for a reason: the estuary and surrounding wetland habitat support well over 200 recorded species, along with the occasional river otter working the banks.
Here's where it matters for anyone planning a fall walk. The full trail network is designed to eventually run nearly six miles, connecting the estuary, three existing city parks, and downtown Marysville. Phase IV-A of that build-out is already finished. Phase IV-B, the piece that closes a 1.28-mile gap along Sunnyside Boulevard and 47th Avenue NE and finally links up with the First Street Bypass, was scheduled for construction in mid-2026. If you haven't been out that direction recently, this is the stretch to check before you assume the map you remember is still accurate.
Two Trails, Side by Side
| Mother Nature's Window | Ebey Waterfront Trail | |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | Restored dirt and gravel paths | Paved, flat |
| Named routes | Cedar Loop, Fern Trail | Runs along Ebey Slough to Qwuloolt Estuary |
| Reopened or expanded | May 2026, after 25+ years closed | Existing trail, Phase IV-B gap closure slated for mid-2026 |
| Setting | 34-acre second-growth forest | Slough-side marsh and estuary |
| Best for | A quiet, shaded walk under tree canopy | Stroller and wheelchair access, birding, mountain views |
| Funding | $1.47M, $750K federal HUD grant | $2.1M for Phase IV, partially state-funded |
Why This Is Worth Knowing Now
Neither of these projects is a private amenity or a marketing flourish. They're public land that took decades of advocacy, a HUD grant application, and a state funding request to actually deliver. That's a slower and less glamorous story than most new-park announcements, but it's the honest one, and it's why this matters if you live in Marysville and haven't walked either trail this year. The forest that was fenced off when you moved here might not be fenced off anymore. The gap in the waterfront trail that always forced you to double back might be closed by the time the leaves turn.
Marysville doesn't get a new forest very often, and it definitely doesn't get one back after 25 years of being locked out. This is that rare case, and the honest thing to do with it is go see it before the novelty wears into routine, the way most good local trails eventually do.
If you're weighing a move to Marysville, or thinking about what your own property near Comeford Road or the waterfront corridor might be worth in a market that's still sorting out post-pandemic pricing, AMP Properties Group NW can walk you through the numbers as plainly as we walked you through these trails. Get an instant home valuation or ask about our fast-cash program whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
