"This is like our little Central Park in the heart of our city," Lynnwood Mayor George Hurst said on September 8, standing at the ribbon cutting for the third and final phase of the Scriber Creek Trail redevelopment. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and Joel Faber, the city's director of parks, recreation and cultural arts, spoke too. The finished trail runs from Lynnwood Transit Center through Scriber Lake Park to Wilcox Park.

Most of the coverage stopped at the ribbon. The detail that matters more for anyone who lives within walking distance is in the city's own project fact sheet. Annual seasonal flooding used to close the old trail for much of fall and winter. The rebuild was designed around that problem. It's early October 2026, so the season that used to shut the trail down is just starting, and the trail has never been through it in its new form.

A trail that went missing for part of every year

The original Scriber Creek Trail opened in 1991. It was roughly a mile long, and it varied in width and surface, with wood chips, asphalt and wooden bridges. It had more than 60 known accessibility barriers, and it was too narrow to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

The terrain explains the flooding. The trail winds through a peat-fen and bog wetland and crosses Scriber Creek twice. A path laid at ground level through a bog will flood every time the bog fills up.

Even so, the old trail got heavy use. Based on cell phone data, the city estimated nearly 200,000 trips a year before the redevelopment. That count comes from a trail that was closed for much of fall and winter. Now that the route is built to stay open, the city expects use to double.

How the corridor came together

The project was built in three pieces over about two years, with different agencies leading different stretches.

Phase 3 is the short, expensive one. It converts about 2,000 linear feet, or 0.35 mile, of walking paths into a shared-use trail. It also improves the crossing at 196th Street SW and 52nd Avenue W, where the route crosses SR 524. The Herald puts the cost of that section at about $7.6 million. The money came from the state Recreation and Conservation Office, the Puget Sound Regional Council, the state Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, plus local real estate excise tax revenue and park impact fees. Larsen helped secure $500,000 of the federal share.

Lengths vary depending on which city document you read. The Phase 3 project page describes the improved Transit Center to Wilcox Park corridor as 4,000 linear feet. The fact sheet describes the historic trail as about a mile. Those figures measure different things and different end points, so expect a short walk with options to extend it.

What the boardwalks are for

Most of that $7.6 million went into lifting the trail off the ground. In the wetland and stream areas, the city built bridges and boardwalks that raise the trail above the floodplain. The old narrow, ground-level path was replaced with a 14-foot-wide accessible trail. The Herald describes the finished surface as paved and 10 to 14 feet wide.

The city lists four goals for the work. It should give people of all ages and abilities year-round access, connect walkers and cyclists to the transit center, add outdoor recreation, and improve the hydrology of the stream and wetland with "climate resilient trail infrastructure." The first goal is the one this winter will test. The elevated sections have been finished for one summer. No published source yet shows how they hold up through a full fall and winter of rain, and the next few months will show it.

Faber described the trail's mix of uses at the ribbon cutting:

"It's a transportation corridor to get you to and from Sound Transit. It's a place for birds, it's a place for wildlife and most importantly, it's a place for us to go out and enjoy nature and maybe de-stress a bit in this beautiful setting."

That first use explains why the wet season matters beyond weekend walks. A commuter route to the light rail station that floods out from fall through winter is a summer route. If the boardwalks keep it dry, the trail becomes a way to reach the station all year.

Where to start a walk this month

The trail has several entry points. Three of the parks along it list on-site parking on the city's park pages.

• Wilcox Park, 5215 196th Street SW. This is the north end of the finished trail, and it has parking.
• Scriber Lake Park, 5322 198th Street SW. The city lists parking, restrooms and trails here, so it's the practical place to start if you want facilities.
• The 200th Street SW access. Phase 3 begins here, and Herald photos from the ribbon cutting show a trail entrance right beside 200th Street.
• Scriber Creek Park, 20015 Cedar Valley Road. It has parking, and the city says the trail links this park to the Interurban Trail at Lynnwood Transit Center.
• Lynnwood Transit Center. Phase 2 starts at the southwest corner of the transit center, so you can walk straight from the station onto the trail.

The city's parks page lists the full set of connections: Scriber Lake Park, Sprague's Pond Mini Park, Scriber Creek Park, the Interurban Trail and the transit center. Because of the Interurban link, a walk that starts at Wilcox Park can keep going well beyond Lynnwood.

Before you go, check the city's Phase 3 project page, which says the trail is open. As of early October 2026, the city's general Scriber Creek Trail page still shows a construction closure notice. That notice looks out of date compared with the project page and the September coverage.

What's out there once you're on it

At Scriber Lake Park, the trail connects to the Scriber Lake Park Boardwalk, which the city finished in June 2025. That floating boardwalk replaced the park's old dock and has benches facing the lake. The north part of the new Phase 3 section has its own boardwalk, and there's a bench at a viewpoint along the new stretch.

The city describes the lake and its wetlands as habitat for fish, waterfowl, songbirds and small mammals. At the ribbon cutting, attendees told My Lynnwood News that a bobcat had recently been seen near the finished trail. One of the Herald's photos from that day shows an American bulldog sitting on a log beside the trail, so dog walkers have already found it.

The counters are already running

The city installed two trail counters to record actual use. Those counters will produce the data that answers the question this winter raises. The 200,000-trip estimate was built on cell phone data from a trail that closed for part of every year. Counts from November through February would be a figure no one has had before: how many people use this corridor in the months it used to be under water.

Quinn Van Order, chair of the city's parks and recreation board, described the project at the ribbon cutting as "what your tax dollars are going to." Residents can also help maintain it. The city's free Stewards of South Lynnwood Parks work parties remove invasive plants, plant native species and pick up litter. Each runs from 10 a.m. to noon at Scriber Lake Park on these Saturdays:

1. October 24, 2026
2. November 21, 2026
3. December 19, 2026

The November and December dates fall in the middle of the season that used to close the trail. If the boardwalks work as designed, volunteers will walk in on the same path that commuters take to the light rail station.

If you own a home near Scriber Lake Park, Wilcox Park or the transit center, the finished trail is now part of what your property offers. David Ayers can show you how being close to amenities like this shows up in local comparable sales. Get your instant home valuation to see where your home stands this fall.