Seattle's Gemstone Parks 


This entry consists of a series of descriptive essays on 13 city parks of exceptional noteworthiness. The parks are Alki Beach, the Arboretum, the Burke-Gilman Trail, Camp Long, Carkeek Park, Discovery Park, Golden Gardens Park, Gas Works Park, Green Lake Park, Lincoln Park, Seward Park, Magnuson Park (formerly Sand Point Park), and Volunteer Park. In these essays I describe the park's location, it's major and supporting features, any special characteristics which lend the park its own unique flavor, how to get there by public transportation, and if there are any decent local eateries or coffee shops in the area.

The residents of Seattle city can thank a periodically inspired local leadership and the efforts of the Olmsted Brothers to map out and plan a series of parks and connecting boulevards in the city. Seattle has one of the finest parks and recreation systems of any city in North America. These essays only highlight the "gemstone" parks, parks with significant acreage and/or significant and unique features which would draw visitors from anywhere in the world. The city also has three major-league golf courses, minor-league class stadiums and ball fields for a variety of sports, and such a plethora of neighborhood parks and playgrounds that the only way to really make sense of it is to visit the Seattle Parks and Recreation website. 

Image of beach with sunbathers at Alki Beach Park.

Sunbathers enjoy the sun and view across Puget Sound of Bainbridge Island and the
Olympic Mountains beyond from Alki Beach Park.

Alki Beach Park - 140 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/alki.htm>

This park is really an open and preserved stretch of peninsula beach which runs about two and a half miles along the northwestern and northeastern end of the West Seattle point. There's a US Coast Guard lighthouse at the western end and a fantastic lookout point with water-taxi landing on the eastern end. The beach is set up for a variety of activities including picnics, volleyball, and campfires in approved areas.

A recently redone Art House and Beach House (with showers) has opened right in the center of the park area. The adjacent sidewalk and bike lanes provide a well-defined and ample space for bladers, skaters, cyclists, families with kid carriages and people who just want to stroll. On the other side is the entire stretch of Alki Beach restaurants, cafes, bars and a few odds-'n-ends stores catering to the art crowd, the beach crowd, and the outdoor crowd.

From this location you have an unimpeded view across the Sound to the Olympic Mountains, across Elliott Bay to both Magnolia and Queen Anne and Downtown and the entire harbor area. This is a highly functional park and is almost always crowded on clear and sunny days. However, some of the best times to stroll along the beach are during foggy or rainy days as the urban landscapes in the distance often get washed out or grayed out and there's a very solitary and soothing feeling about being on the beach when no one else is around. Plus, this is one of the best locations to catch the motion of the clouds across the entire Sound area - not to mention the sunsets in Summer since the sun is way far north at that time and sinks into the Pacific Ocean a little bit north of the last mountains in the Olympic Range. Because of its location right at the southern end of Elliott Bay, this is one of the best spots in the city to watch ferry traffic. All the ferry lines which dock at the downtown Colman Terminal cross directly in front of anyone at Alki, as do the cruise ships and container vessels headed for the Port of Seattle. This is the best park for ocean-going traffic watching.

If you're heading to Alki for a stroll, make sure you continue around the western end past the light house because that opens up to a stretch of Beach Avenue (western side but essentially the same stretch of street as Alki Avenue which includes a sidewalk promontory dubbed "Avenue of the Stars." This section of sidewalk, facing due west and directly toward the Olympic Mountains, has embedded brass stars in the pavement representing the constellations which rise over the mountains in the Fall, Winter and Spring months. If you stand near one of the constellation markers on the date indicated you will catch that particular constellation ascendant over the mountains. Pretty much all the constellations are indicated. A bit further south along Beach Drive from this location is the monument to the original landing of the Denny party - the founders of Seattle. There's a small obelisk and a very well done bas relief metal placard (embedded in the obelisk's surrounding structure) which outlines all the peaks in the Olympic Range - which is directly in front of you at that location. You can also read up on the varied wind and weather patterns which hit this section of the peninsula. Right across the street is one of the city's higher-class Italian restaurants - La Rustica. This would be a good spot to end a day at Alki Beach as you could spend the day on the beach, wander around the light house end and finish the day with a fine dinner watching the sun set past the Olympics.

Overall, Alki is one of the most-used and probably best-known "hang out" parks in the city. It's a great place for people, boat, or landscape watching and with the number and kind of amenities directly across Alki Avenue from the park, you could easily spend an entire day here. In Summer there are a number of festivals and impromptu events which occur on the beach - usually in the late afternoon and evening. Alki is also one of the best areas to catch the city's 4th of July fireworks or the New Year's fireworks - which get set off in the harbor right in front of you. It gets crowded - just a warning.

In the height of the summer crush, Alki Beach takes on somewhat the same feel as Venice Beach in Southern California with volleyball team after volleyball team competing along the eastern stretch of beach strand and with scantily-clad bladers, skaters and runners lining the trails.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 37 and 53 run from downtown all along the entire Alki Avenue stretch. There is probably not another city park which has as many amenities right adjacent to the park as does Alki. The beach is on the waterfront side of Alki Avenue and at least an entire mile of the facing street is lined with restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. At the southeast end of Alki there are also additional amenities such as fishing piers, the water-taxi landing, and more restaurants, bike-rental shops and cafes.


The Arboretum- 194 acres
<http://depts.washington.edu/wpa/>

The Washington Park Arboretum to be precise - is this city's grand-scale botanical garden. It's set in a set of rilles and valleys interspersed with dells and dales. It's wonderful terrain and on the western inside ridge there's also the Japanese Garden <http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/japanesegarden.htm>, a special three acre preserve designed by a renowned Japanese garden architect. The botanical sections of the park, especially the flowering ones, are as resplendent as the National Arboretum in DC. Both are superb vistas filled with rhododendrons and azaleas of all possible colors. The tree collections in the Seattle arboretum, I think, are a better choice than the National's choice, which often left one or two oaks on hills by themselves. Here, there's forest and dell, little glens in between and a winding set of trails which run the long way and a few which chris-cross. For cyclists, it's a dream since the roads are narrow and windy and mostly everyone goes slow.

It's in the northeast section of the main Seattle landmass - that is not separated by water. The park and arboretum run north along a valley which descends deep between the ridges of Capitol Hill and Montlake on the west and the mangly-hill which is Madison Park on the east. The parks near neighbors are well-heeled citizens in houses which nicely frame this "Sherwood Forest." By public transit it's a two-fer from here, that is I get downtown and then I get up Madison on some other bus. Or I could get to the other end, but either way it's a couple miles traverse once you're there to get back to where you can catch another bus. Biking is a series of up-down-up-down hills, some worse than others.

But, besides all that, it's a great park with vast swaths of magical and mystical shadows and sunlight filtering this way or that. The great thing about arboretum parks is that they are representative, not necessarily native nor in normal abundances. The Washington Park arboretum just happens to feel right. All this stuff does grow here and all this stuff could easily grown in this section of town. Seattle's filled with these niche valleys where the temps are 8 degrees warmer or they never get fog (or always get fog, like where I live). This is definitely a wonderful climate to grow bushes and trees which flower or have strangely-colored leaves and when mixed artfully they can be at once wild and a grand garden.

By virtue of its strictly defined geography and surrounding hills, this park is one where you go through, or in and back. It's a linear mile from one portal to the other. In this regard, the arboretum is like many of Seattle's gemstone parks. It's almost a private place - a refuge. The arboretum is the refuge for flowering trees and bushes and special and fancy gardens. It's a color retreat protected by a variegated canopy of translucent green through which the sun - or gray light if it's that kind of day - is filtered and dapples the plants and the flowers and is always moving. Arboretums are meant to be experienced by taking in whole hillsides of plants and allowing that image to imprint so that the next hillside of plants you see somehow makes sense. A mile is a good distance for humans to walk, or stroll, or bike slowly. My suspicion is that the nearby neighbors of this park are among those who don't use it - they've got their own special gardens. Doesn't matter, it's a great retreat and especially if you like the small details of things like the Japanese Garden. But, not the easiest park to get to by any means - not even car. Public is actually the easiest. Reminds me of some of Montreal's parks, which were outstanding but which were just "out of reach."

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 43 and 48 pass near the Montlake Cut entrance to the park and there's a short walk to enter the Arboretum. The Japanese Gardens have a small gift shop and visitor center. Other amenities are not nearby but a walk across the University Bridge to the U-District then opens up the entire stretch of Roosevelt Way and University Avenue, which are filled with shops, restaurants, cafes, bars and bookstores.


Burke-Gilman Trail - 88 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/burkegilmantrailmaps.htm>

This isn't a park so much as it is a 14-mile long scenic and well-engineered and appointed trail which follows the shoreline of Lake Washington along the eastern edge of the city and then continues through the University of Washington campus and picks up again along the northern shore of the various bodies of water which connect Lake Washington to Puget Sound. Certain areas of the trails are filled with large outdoor pieces of artwork and the entire eastern stretch is isolated enough from the surrounding cityscape to give one a reasonable sense of isolation. The areas near Lake Union, however, are very much an inner-city urban bike-hike trail experience and are usually rather over-run with cyclists, bladers, runners, skaters and a panoply of others.

There's no particular stretch which is more or less outstanding than any other. The system uses now-abandonned railroad right-of-way to create a very satisfying water landscape urban trail. Eventually, the Burke-Gilman trail will be completed at the western end and connect to several Sound-side parks in the northwest sections of the city. On the east side, the trail will be connected to other trails being developed around the Lake Sammamish area, providing a continuous set of trails which exceed 30 miles.

There are a few comfort stations located along the way and the trail goes through some of the city's most interesting neighborhoods from the northeast wooded sections down through the University District and over to the Ballard locks. Gasworks Park, a former gasification plant located right in the center of Lake Union's north shore, is one of the featured parks the trail wanders through.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus connections to the trail are dependent on which area you might like to start at. To get to the northeast sections take the 75 bus, to get on near the University District, any of the 70-series or 43 buses will get you to the U-District and then it's a short walk, from the Lake Union area the 26 Fremont-Green Lake and 15-18 Ballard buses will get you close. Amenities are sparse along the actual trail but with the U-District, Fremont and Ballard being along the trail's route, local restaurants, cafes, shops and bars are only a few blocks inland from the trail along most of the Lake Union portions.

Camp Long - 58 acres
<http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/parks/environment/camplong.htm>

This natural-setting woods camp is just north of the West Seattle Golf Course and shares the golf course's access to Longfellow Creek. The camp is just that, an outdoor recreation and learning area which has cabins available for booking. The camp was carved out of unused acreage just north of the golf course in 1937 to serve as a training and camping ground for area Boy Scouts. Most of the area's native features remain in their original state.

A particular feature of the park is Schurman's Rock, a 20-foot high recreation of a rock outcropping which was designed by Clark Schurman and built by the Works Progress Administration team over a two-year period. Schurman named the rock "Monitor Rock" after his intention in building the structure, which was "to warn, remind, advise, and instruct." After his death the city renamed the climbing feature after him.

The rustic cabins in the park are log-cabins with six bunk beds in each - exactly the type of cabin featured at so many summer camp settings. The cabins and shelters can be booked through the parks department, and so can the lodge itself for weddings or parties. Not surprising, there's a "no alcohol" rule for use of the cabins, though for an extra fee you can have alcohol in the lodge.

The actual environment is deeply-wooded and verdant. The trails are good for walking or biking, though there are a few switch-backs which will require some dexterity on a mountain bike and mean walking on any other type of bike. Total trail distance is probably just over two miles with a ridge trail and a meadows/swamp trail.

What's so special about this park is it's exclusivity. It's a relatively large area of reasonably pristine local flora and fauna with a view back to the pre-developed look of the area. It's right off the major central artery for this section of West Seattle (35th Avenue SW) but the direction sign and entrance could not be more understated. Yes, you could catch it driving, biking or walking by, but you'd never suspect what lay on the other side of the half-block walk. Once inside Camp Long, because of the tall trees, the deep and low valley in the center and the relative steepness of the ridges on either side, it's quiet. Even the airplane noises seem lower in level. Plus it's a different environment, with all the trees and undergrowth it looks like a managed mess. Everything is tucked up against or inside the canopy of some trees or stands of trees. The structures - mostly being WPA in origin - are native stone with some brick and concrete here and there, and native timber rough-hewn and rustically constructed into lean-to's, cabins, sheds, and equipment huts. It really does look like a camp.

In the daytime hours from 10 am through 2 pm, the staff runs a comprehensive outdoor and environmental learning and interacting program. This is in keeping with the original intent for the camp and there are three naturalists on staff. Because of its lowland location, there's a channeled run of the creek which results in a pond - which means there are frogs in summer and fall - and eagles and owls throughout the year.

Just veering by on 35th, you could stop, park or lock whatever conveyance you were in, and spend from thirty minutes to ninety minutes here just wandering around and stepping backwards in time to the more gentile era of the WPA and Boy Scouting in the period between the two World Wars. It's a neat park because, more than most, this one presents itself as a slice of both nature and time. And, it's so easy to get to and yet seemingly undiscovered so it's nearly always a pleasant singular experience at Camp Long.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 21 runs from downtown (or Ballard where it usually starts as a 15 or 18) to Arbor Heights at the southern end of 35th Avenue. Camp Long is at the top of the hill from the long climb up from the Avalon Way intersection and entrance to West Seattle Stadium and Golf Course. It's on the east side of 35th nearly opposite the Providence-St. Vincent home. Other than what's nearby (about a mile away) in the Alaska Junction area, there are no shops, coffee houses or other eateries nearby. Bring a picnic lunch or snacks and a drink. There are fountains and faucets spread throughout the area, though.


Carkeek Park - 186 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/carkeek.htm>

This is another of the Sound-side beach parks and is in the northwestern-most section of the city. The parkland consists of a series of steep ridges which descend down towards the Sound shore and one really large and verdant valley through which a creek flows. The creek outfall into the Sound is one of the features. The creek - Piper Creek - has also been restored as a salmon breeding waters through years of working with the city parks department and the county - which operates a sewage plant in the middle of the park. The park also features a fantastic and well-developed environmental center which is both a neighborhood element of pride and a destination for area school classes. The center <http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/carkeekpark/elc.htm> itself is a wonder because of the recycled materials used in its construction and the solar array and recycled water plants which provide electricity and flush water for the toilets in the center.

The main park roadmeanders around the park finally ending in a large community playground right across the railroad tracks from the shoreline beach. The Burlington Northern-Sante Fe Railroad has its main north-south set of rail lines running right adjacent to the shore through most of the north end of Seattle, and this park is no exception. At the playground there is a large, pedestrian, over-the-tracks, bridge which connects the park playground with the beach on the other side of the tracks and provides truly birds-eye views of the train traffic. A few of the trails which meander through the various ridges, or the trail which follows Piper Creek, actually cross directly over the tracks. This has been seriously discouraged because of the number of people accidentally hit by trains but the trails still follow the original paths. The problem with the railroad tracks is one of sound. The BNSF tracks are very busy and one of the "non park" experiences at Carkeek is railroad watching. Because Carkeek is set in a natural cove with two very pronounced capes at the north and south ends of the cove, the beach area provides stunning and sweeping views of the trains as they round one or the other bend. The freight trains operated by BNSF can be upwards of a mile long which means park goers on the beach side can be, at times, completely surrounded by a single freight train.

Crossing the tracks with freight trains coming is no problem as they are large and make a great deal of railroad-track noise. The issue is that Amtrak also runs the Cascade Service between Vancouver, BC, and Eugene, Oregon, on a relatively frequent schedule. These trains are usually four to six cars, all sleek and aerodynamically designed, and instead of the usual, powerful and noisy, diesel engines, the passenger trains use more silent-running diesels with all engines and cars suspended on very quiet wheel trolleys. This makes the Amtrak the killer because it's usually twice to three times as fast as the freight trains and comes up on people walking across the tracks very silently.

Call it a secret danger of the park. The Piper Creek meadows is the most picturesque element of Carkeek and is filled with small, swampy marshes with lots of wildlife and strange Northwest plants. The beach is a natural area with lots of fallen logs which have washed ashore and lots of pebbles and seashells. Depending on tides and time of year, it can also be filled with kelp which has washed ashore and is lying about drying. The views across the Sound to the Olympic Peninsula and Mountains is spectacular on a clear day and moody on a cloudy or foggy day. From Carkeek you can look both up the Sound towards Whidbey Island and Vancouver Island and down the Sound towards Vashon and the southern reaches of the water. Tidal range at the beach appears to be on the order of three to six feet and the Sound descends quickly to depths of up to 400 feet offshore. The park is set deep inside two of the city's most well-appointed neighborhoods (Broadview on the north and Crown Hill on the south) with most homes occupying a well-carved view point atop one of the many ridges lining the Sound-side.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 5 goes north on Greenwood from downtown. Get off at the NW 117th Street stop and just walk about a quarter-mile west along 117th Street. The street turns into the main park road and a number of trails begin on the street itself. There aren't many eating or drinking spots this far north on Greenwood Avenue - and the park itself only supplies water and rest facilities, so pack a picnic lunch, but do bring your camera as the views are outstanding.


Image of Puget Sound and West Seattle as seen from the high meadows at Discovery Park.

View of Puget Sound, Alki Point (foreground) and the Kitsap Peninsula (background)
from the sandy high meadow area at Discovery Park.

Discovery Park - 512 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/Environment/discovparkindex.htm>

Like a few other parks in the city, Discovery Park was several things before it was a park. It was the site of an original stand of Northwest Fir and was a local native hangout in the days before Seattle became settled. Early on the city engaged the US Military and offered the plot of land, on the western Magnolia hilltop with a steep and sweeping bluff descending several hundred feet to the Sound. The hope was that the US Army would build it up. In 1900 the efforts of Washington state senators, local real estate and city leaders, and the US Army itself resulted in 703 acres of the western area of Magnolia being turned over to the military for a fortification. The fortification would be the third line of defense in a series of forts which began further out on the Strait of Juan de Fuca with Port Townsend and Whidbey Island providing heavy artillery as a first and second line of defense and Fort Lawton being the third line of defense.

By 1927 the fort had proven unnecessary as a fortification and was turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers, which managed then and still manages now a large number of Sound-area facilities, including the Ballard Locks. In 1938 the Army offered the area back to the city for one dollar; but the city declined because it didn't feel it could afford the cost of maintenance. During World War II the fort saw duty as an embarkation point for Pacific-bound soldiers. It also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian soldiers - a number of whom are buried in the cemetery on the grounds.

By 1970 the city had grown enough to support such a large park maintenance and the Army had seen all of its use of the park superseded by other encampments - most notably Fort Lewis south of Tacoma. Today, 35 years after the city resumed control of this magnificent area, the park is a haven for nature lovers and includes an extensive Native American education and cultural program at the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. The area still has a few acres devoted to military use - mostly residential housing for area service families. At one time the fort was also the location of Nike anti-missile defense brigades. Those are gone now, too.

The two most prominent non-natural elements of the park are the very large radome at the top of the hill. This is part of the FAA's regional air traffic control and management system and provides tracking and radar coverage for the regional FAA Air Traffic Control facility which operates out of Seattle. Late last year the city acquired the West Point Lighthouse from the Coast Guard. The lighthouse is the other prominent non-natural feature of the park and is expected to evolve into another element of the city's parks and recreation program. Just prowling around lighthouses is fun and this is one of the treats of Discovery Park.

The bluffs on the southern, western, and northern sides of the park offer incredible and sweeping views across Puget Sound to nearly all the large islands, the Kitsap Peninsula, and - of course - the Olympic Mountains. There are also stunning views looking south at the Port of Seattle, portions of downtown and West Seattle, and all the ferry and cargo traffic plying Elliott Bay and the Sound. The park is criss-crossed with trails which traverse several environmental areas. There are high marshes in the middle area of the park which - surprisingly - have soft and nearly white sand. Tall reed grasses grow nearly everywhere in the meadows area as do scraggly pine varieties usually found along the Oregon Coast. The park includes a few trails which traverse down the steep slopes to the pristine beach below. Most of the bluff area is a protected natural area and wandering off the trails is strongly discouraged for reasons of personal safety (some of the cliffs are vertical drops of two-hundred feet) and for protecting the tenuous and fragile vegetation which is growing literally out of the side of these bluffs.

The beach at the bottom is really more of a landfall than a beach since the Sound slopes deeply and steeply downward from this bluff area. The distance between the water's edge and the cliff's side can be as narrow as ten feet at mean tide and be gone completely at high tide. The beachfront is part of a protected marine environment and runs for nearly two miles around the southern, western and near northern sides of the western sections of the Magnolia promontory.

Perhaps because it's so vast and covers an entire hillside, the park is generally such that anyone looking for solitude could easily find whole acres to themselves on any given day or time-of-day. It helps that the park is in the western sections of Magnolia, and therefore relatively inaccessible to most of the city's residents. First off, getting to Magnolia is somewhat less-than-easy and, secondly, getting to Discovery Park means getting away from the built-up areas of Magnolia. This is a nearly-perfect family outing or picnic spot. Other than the Daybreak Star Center there's very little which has changed to the land in some areas. The military use was mostly in the northern and eastern sections of the park so of you stay in the southern and western areas you are surrounded by a landscape which has re-naturalized itself. Though denuded of the tall firs which once grew nearly everywhere, the park today offers a peaceful, serene setting with a nearly-endless set of vast and sweeping vista points.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 24 and 33 go right to the park from downtown. Route 24 approaches the park by meandering through the twin hills of Magnolia and going through the Magnolia urban center at 34th and West McGraw Street. Route 33 makes more of a beeline along the eastern section of Magnolia and ends near the Environmental Center at Discovery Park. The distance between the two bus route ends-of--line (they both end their runs at Discovery Park) is about a mile. One could catch the 24 and wander through the park and take the 33 back downtown. There are no amenities, save rest facilities at the Daybreak Star Center, so getting a snack or coffee after or before visiting the park means hitting up the Magnolia urban center, where there are some fine restaurants and a couple of really nice coffee shops. If taking the bus, simply get a transfer, get off, have a snack, and catch the next bus.


Golden Gardens Park - 88 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/Golden.htm>

This is one of five major parks along the Puget Sound side of Seattle. The northernmost of these is Carkeek, Golden Gardens is the next park south of Carkeek and gives great views of Discovery Park (the next one further south than Golden Gardens) but is hidden from Carkeek by the point which separates the two coves which are Carkeek and Golden Gardens Parks. Golden Gardens is a beach park with a steep cliffside behind the beach section. There are a few trails which run along ridge lines in the wooded sections, but primarily Golden Gardens is beach oriented with playgrounds facing the beach, a beach house, and an interpretative trail leading through the meadows which line the northern areas of the park and which are the actual point jutting out into the Sound. Opposite Golden Gardens, across Puget Sound, is Bainbridge Island and most of the island can be seen from anywhere along the Golden Gardens beach area.

The park is heavily used and has a large, spread-out, set of parking lots between the actual beach and the slight ridge which separates the beach portions from the forested portions and along which runs the Burlington Northern-Sante Fe main railroad lines. Unlike Carkeek Park, though, there are no really good views of railroad activity at Golden Gardens. However, just south of the park is one of the city's largest marinas with a few support facilities, including a reasonable and inexpensive snack and coffee shop. Besides tide watching, tidal pool observations and the general play which goes with a beach park, Golden Gardens offers an exceptional view of sailboat activity in this stretch of Puget Sound - a very active area. This is also the main passage for ocean-going vessels so there is a constant stream of container cargo ships and tankers and grain vessels. Because the park is literally between two ferry terminals in downtown to the south and Mukilteo to the north, and those terminals are sited for proximity to their opposite-shore destinations, Golden Gardens is, alas, not a good spot to watch ferry traffic. However, Alki Beach Park, on the West Seattle Peninsula, IS a great spot for ferry watching.

Golden Gardens is not that large a park but the forest and wetland trails can and do provide a good separation between you and the rest of the world so it does a pretty good job as a nature preserve and walk. There is some old growth still in the forested cliff areas and the meadows are always alive with insect, bird activity as well as providing a great look at how beautiful natural wetland areas are throughout the four seasons.

In terms of things to do, this is a "picnic" park with large areas for setting up blankets and picnic baskets along the grassy areas just above the beach line. There are not "formal" picnic areas as there are at Lincoln Park (the southernmost Puget Sound side park) but with the attractions of the beach itself, the meadows, and the playground, this is a great park for a family outing with children. Because it's sandwiched, literally, between two neighborhoods in Ballard, this park is nearly equivalent to a neighborhood playground and is well used and rarely empty of people.

With the five Puget Sound side city parks, Seattle park goers and Sound watchers have a real choice in which sections of the Sound they can observe and engage. The northern parks face Bainbridge Island and offer a view north to the passages leading to Whidbey Island and the San Juan Islands. You can't see them but you can get a sense of the size and flow of the Sound. The central parks - Discovery and Alki - offer a view at the boat and ship traffic on the Sound as well as southern portions of Bainbridge Island, and views of Blake and Vashon Islands. Lincoln Park offers views of the lower reaches of the Sound and provides front-row seats for ocean-going traffic heading for the Port of Tacoma. Lincoln also has one of the busiest ferry terminals just south of it (Fauntleroy Terminal) so ferry traffic is a constant sight at Lincoln. One could literally choose one's view of Puget Sound simply by choosing one of these outstanding parks. All of them except Alki offer an area which will allow a look back to a more primordial Puget Sound mainland, including restored wetland areas, tidal pools and creek outflows, and - most especially - the rugged cliffs filled with native firs.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 18 goes within a third of a mile of the park's beaches with the remaining stretch down a delightful and shaded road which puts you deep inside the forest. The nearby marina (just south of the park boundary) has a nautical outfitting store and a snack and coffee shop so you could pick up nautical charts of the Sound and a sandwich or drink easily. Remember, this park gets relatively filled in the afternoons and weekends so the snack shop might have lines. The park facilities include rest facilities and drinking and dog water fountains. Because it's a "picnic" facility as well, there is an abundance of parking, discretely removed from both the wooded areas and the beach areas. If you're driving, the road to the park goes right past the Ballard Locks, so you might consider a stop at the Locks enroute to Golden Gardens.


Gas Works Park - 19 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/gasworks.htm>

This park is another in a series of great spaces formerly occupied by something else. In 1906 the northerly point of land jutting into Lake Union was cleared and construction begun on a coal gasification plant. That plant, which was later converted to operate on crude oil, manufactured "natural" gas from these other carbon-based natural resources until the mid '50s when the Alberta and British Columbia natural gas fields wee discovered and pipelines constructed south to the Puget Sound area. Based on the new economics of "cheap natural gas," the gasification plant closed. In 1962 Seattle city acquired the property with the plan of converting the promontory into a city park. That process took a bit of time as there were areas of the 19 acres which needed to be environmentally cleaned, and, the massive industrial complex itself had to be disassembled and cleared. The actual gasification stacks remain and are a perpetually-rusting feature of the park.

The "gas plant" feature of the park is hard to miss - it has this post-modern appearance of a giant industrial sculpture, and in that light is reasonably attractive. The real point of this park, though, is the fantastic set of views from the central hillside. From this spot in the middle of Lake Union the entire city surrounds the visitor. In front, in a semi-circle surrounding the park's land, is the entire area of Lake Union. Seaplanes take off from the southern end of the Lake and fly overhead. Vessels of all forms, fishing boats, sailing yachts, tour and small cruise ships, tug boats, you name the vessel and it's there. Fireworks are also a major feature of the park every 4th of July and the hillside fills to the brim with people and blankets and picnic baskets.

The Burke-Gilman trail wends its way through the park on its way from Salmon Bay (to the west) to Lake Washington (to the east). At the top of the hill is a giant sundial, which also serves as a focal point for those who bring cameras. Some of the original reeds and other native plants have been re-naturalized along the lakeshore, but in general this park is less of a "natural" setting park than it is a "viewpoint" park. It offers a bit of respite for those on a bike who stop while using the Burke-Gilman trail for a break and chance to enjoy the views. From the other sections of the city around Lake Union, this park appears as a bit of greenery in an otherwise fully-developed shoreline.

This park is probably on the "must see" list owing mostly to the unusual and dramatic sculpture which the now-defunct "gasworks" themselves presents. The views are stunning and ever-changing and the skies overhead are literally unimpeded by any nearby structures. For those who want to relax, get some sun, or simply take in the city scape, this is a perfect spot. It's removed from the city noises and highway noises but not removed from the aquatic noises. Boats come and go, as do the seaplanes, providing a background distraction for those otherwise enjoying the lakeside respite. For Wallingford residents, this is their neighborhood park and one very often finds families and sets of friends who've stopped by for a few moments.

Also nearby, a few blocks away, is the Fremont Troll, located beneath the north end of the Aurora Bridge. This is a cast concrete structure depicting a troll devouring a Volkswagen - and it's a real Volkswagen. It's worth the few blocks distance and the steep hill climb just to see this neighborhood artwork.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 26 goes from downtown through Fremont and right past Gas Works Park. This same bus continues on to the Green Lake neighborhood if you were interested in hitting two parks with one bus. There are a number of cafes and restaurants in the immediate area just north of Gas Works park but the distance from the park to downtown Fremont is only a few blocks and Fremont offers exceptional finds in restaurants, cares, bars and clubs, and a huge range of shops ranging from record and music to groceries and furniture. Northeast of the park, also a few blocks away, is one of the city's renowned local and artisan bakeries - Essential Baking at 1604 N. 34th Street, the street which provides access to the park itself.


Green Lake Park - 324 acres
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/greenlak.htm>

Don't be misled by the large acreage attributed to Green Lake Park - nearly all of those 324 acres are the lake itself. Green Lake is, by nearly all accounts, everyone's favorite park - tied only with Alki Beach for numbers of park users and numbers of events staged at the park. The park itself is sandwiched in the middle of a number of the city's denser neighborhoods. The area lies in a natural valley just east of Phinney Ridge and at the top of a slight rise from the lower levels of the northern shoreline area of Lake Union. On all sides of the park are the Phinney Ridge, Green Lake, Roosevelt, and Wallingford neighborhoods. The Green Lake neighborhood urban center is directly across from the eastern end of Green Lake itself and as a consequence, many of the restaurants and coffee shops have outdoor seating to take advantage of both the great view of the park and all the activity which occurs within the park.

The park provides a beach house for swimming and has a great number of water-oriented support features including a floating dock to swim to, paddle boats to tool around the lake in and a music shell on the west side of the park. Because Green Lake is the shallowest water facility in the area it's perfect for swimming as the water temperatures warm up to a relatively comfortable range in the Summer. The algae blooms which used to clog the lake are now controlled with two means. The lake, which is a "sump," that is it has no natural outlet, has been re-plumbed so there is a slow but stead stream of fresh water from city water sources and there is a drainage system which keeps the water level even. The other algae-control is through the use of chemicals which occurs only occasionally, as necessary. When that happens the city posts signs indicating the action.

The lake is surrounded by a wide and "laned" boulevard-styled walkway. The lanes are important because Green Lake is visited by thousands of neighbors and nearby Seattleites each day and sometimes overwhelmed on weekends. The lanes are for those using their feet and others using wheeled devices - baby carriages, skateboards, in-line and regular rollerblades, and, of course, bicycles. If you want to use the park for a cycling or running track, the best times are early morning or very late evening or any weekend morning. For cyclists, runners or bladers, the linear distance of the laned walkway is 2.8 miles and has a few markings for distances. Because of the laned path, though, cyclists and others using wheeled vehicles are allowed to go only in a counter-clockwise direction.

The park is adjacent, on the west and south sides, to Woodland Park. Woodland Park itself is split by the SR-99/Aurora Avenue arterial but there are overpasses and pedestrian-activated lights set up to cross the busy roadway. Woodland Park has a dog-run and several ball fields and picnic areas. Green Lake Park also has ball fields and a very impressive playground area set up next to the beach house on the eastern side of the park, but is often overrun by the crowds who use the park, hence the advantage of the nearby areas at Woodland Park.

The park's central location within the city and the natural scenic background of the lake with the city neighborhoods surrounding it on the high-ridge sides, make this a popular location for Summer events - both daytime on weekends and evenings throughout the week. Although not as big nor as varied as New York's Central Park, the number of people who use Green Lake and the diversity of activities park-goers are engaging in gives one the impression that Green Lake "might" be Seattle's "central park." The only other park to host as many and as diverse a range of activities as Green Lake is Seattle Center, whose setting is much less park-like and nestled in the busy area just outside downtown - giving Green Lake the edge for activities occurring in a "park."

Because it's nestled right adjacent to the Green Lake neighborhood's urban center, there are plenty of facilities within a block of the park which provide rentals for skates, carriages, buggies, bicycles, and even picnic baskets already prepared for use. Bring your own blanket, though, and sunscreen.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 26 goes from downtown through Fremont to the neighborhood center on the edge of the east side of Green Lake. That same neighborhood core has a large and varied collection of coffee houses, restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, outdoor activity and bicycle stores and even a few art galleries. The walkway is within two blocks of the neighborhood's core facilities and is separated from the park by a wonderful esplanaded drive. Nearby Ravenna Blvd. provides a nice continuation of the bike trail around the lake for those who want to bike further east. Ravenna Park abuts the boulevard on the northern side.


Image of people walking along the beach at Lincoln Park with Alki Point in the background.

Walking along the beach at Lincoln Park with low tide exposing shells and some crustaceans.

Lincoln Park - 135 acres
<http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/lincoln.htm>

This is the southern most of the Puget Sound side city parks and is one of the oldest parks in the city. The original plan was designed by the Olmsted Brothers over a hundred years ago with the intention of preserving the old-growth firs which line the bluffs facing the beach. The park is situated on a prominent bend in the local geography which juts out at Williams Point. Adjacent to the point is the Colman Pool, the city's only salt-water swimming pool and a very popular spot in the summer months, the only time it is open since it's an outdoor pool. The park has an extensive set of trails which meander through the the top of the bluff and a mile-long beach trail which follows the curve of the water below the bluff.

There is significant infrastructure at the park, partly owing to its age and a series of improvements over the years. There are picnic shelters located along the southern reaches of the park and ball fields and playgrounds located in the meadows up on the bluff. Also in the bluff area are a series of shelters and other older, wooden, structures which serve as meeting spaces for the environmental education program which is carried out here. Very often, as is true at Carkeek and Seward Parks as well, Seattle Parks and Recreation staff set up along the beach to provide visitors with an interactive opportunity to walk with a park ranger and learn more about the shoreline ecology. A number of schools are involved in all these programs in the Fall and visitors to any of these three parks during the school year will see small groups of students walking along the beaches in tow of one or more of the environmental guides.

Because it's located on the Sound side, visiting the park during low tide will allow the visitor to see some of the marine life caught in the tidal pools including local starfish, rock crabs and urchins and a variety of other sea life. Gulls, crows and other local birds frequent the beach during the low tides looking for their meals. To the north of the park is one of the cities largest original stands of native fir - Schmitz Park Reserve. The reserve is also home to one of two pair of nesting bald eagles which live along West Seattle's waterfront area. Visitors to the park can very often see the eagles flying up and down the coast looking for fish.

The Fauntleroy Ferry dock is adjacent to the southern end of the park and provides a continuous passing show of ferries coming from and going to both Vashon Island and Southworth, across the sound on the Kitsap Peninsula. From the bluffs or along the beach, Lincoln Park visitors are also treated to spectacular views of Vashon Island, Blake Island - an undeveloped island which features native salmon bakes and ceremonial dances, and both the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas with the 8,000-foot Olympic Mountains defining the western views. The park is immediately east of the main Puget Sound passageway to the Port of Tacoma, which means in addition to the busy ferry traffic there are views of container and tanker vessels going south and north along the passage. There are no nearby boat basins or slips but that doesn't stop the sailboats from filling up the waters between Lincoln Park and Blake Island in the summer. Lincoln park itself has a boat dock from which kayaks and canoes can be launched for the short, four-mile, water trip to Blake Island.

In the Spring, Fall and Winter months Lincoln Park is one of the city's most reliable locations for fog-watchers. It's location right on the point and sandwiched up and down the Sound by islands seems to cause fog to drift directly toward Lincoln Park. In these months the plaintive sound of the ferry boat foghorns produces a guaranteed eerie effect. Oftentimes a ferry coming from Southworth or Vashon will sound its horn continuously as it crosses this busy passageway area and will only appear visible when it's within a few hundred feet of the ferry dock landing.

Lincoln Park is one of the highlights of a West Seattle bike trail which begins at the park and continues up around Alki Point and along Alki Beach, culminating at the Seattle Harbor near the Duwamish Waterway and West Seattle Bridge. Cyclists who take this route can be guaranteed of a virtually uninterrupted waterfront view for about eight continuous miles. Cyclists can also use the ferries to get to Vashon and Southworth - as can pedestrians, though there are scant few pedestrian facilities at the Vashon or Southworth docks.

The park is located in one of West Seattle's more desirable neighborhoods but there are scant eating or other facilities in the immediate vicinity of the park. At the northern end is the Cat's Eye Cafe, a local and well-used coffee shop and snack bar. At the southern end of the park, a short walk up Fauntleroy Way from the ferry terminal puts one at the former "end of line" for one of the turn-of-the-century trolley lines. Endolyne, as it's called now has one excellent restaurant and an equally excellent local bakery and coffee shop. Both of these locations can provide food-to-go for park users who stop here first for picnic outfitting.

Although the summer months are not hot by absolute standards, the old-growth firs on the bluffs in Lincoln Park provide outstanding shade for those days when the temperatures do rise above 80. That, coupled with the continuous breezes resulting from the abrupt rise of the bluff directly behind the beach means a full park on the hot days of summer, with many families arriving early weekend mornings.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 54 follows Fauntleroy Way and has several stops at the many trail entrances to the park. The Cat's Eye cafe along the north end of the park and Endolyne Joe's and Original Bakery are located a short walk from the southern end. The park has ample restroom facilities located along the beach, near the Colman pool, and spread about in the meadows along the top of the bluff.


Seward Park - 300 acres
<http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/sewardpark.htm>

Seward Park is another one of Seattle's "old" parks and was an element of the Olmsted Brothers parks and bike plan for the city in 1903. The peninsula was purchased in 1911, with subsequent beach exposure when Lake Washington was opened to Puget Sound in 1917, and even further capital investment in brick facilities in 1927 and later years. The park is on a peninsula which pretty much looks like a thumb jutting northward from the hills on the east side of the city directly into Lake Washington. Along the parks western shore - Andrews Bay - there are water reeds which provide home for a variety of water birds including egrets.

Because of its prominent peninsular shape, the park offers outstanding views all along the 2.4 mile bike and hike trail. Along the southern shoreline one can see the lower Lake Washington area including the hills which sandwich Renton and the Renton-Boeing airport. Along the eastern shoreline visitors are treated to views of nearly the full length of Mercer Island. At the northern tip of Seward Park one can see downtown's skyscrapers peeking up and over the adjacent ridges of Beacon Hill - to the immediate west. Also, from the northern edge one can see the I-90 bridge as it leaves the tunnel under Beacon Hill and crosses Lake Washington towards Mercer Island.

The middle of the Seward peninsula is a slight rise of perhaps a hundred feet and is entirely forested in original-growth fir and other native plants. The park was named at the time of its acquisition after Secretary of State William H. Seward, the man responsible for the purchase of Alaska. The old growth forest and the nearly three miles of trails which traverse this forested stand are the main features of the park. Many of the firs here reach heights of 80 or more feet and are allowed to exist with very little city parks department oversight. Occasionally one will fall, producing new opportunities for plants to spring up in the path of its fall through the forest. The park operates an environmental education program in concert with city schools. There is also an artist's clay studio which offers courses and workshops for residents and visitors as well as a gallery where the works are for sale.

Along the shoreline walkway and bikeway are the wetlands and swamps and marshes typical of the northwest's fresh-water lakes. Depending on the season, migratory birds make use of this natural refuge - especially in the Andrews Bay area, which provides a shallower and warmer watering area for the many amphibians, fish and insects which inhabit Seward Park.

Like so many of the other great parks in Seattle, this park is also a neighborhood park, being directly adjacent to the Seward neighborhood and not that far by foot or bicycle from many of the Rainier Valley neighborhoods in the southeast areas of the city. It's normally quiet and relatively empty in the early morning with mostly cyclists and runners making use of the shoreline trail. In the afternoons and on weekends there are family outings and picnics which fill the park up. Near the entrance are several glades with picnic facilities which invite this kind of use. The park has several rest facilities along the shoreline trail, with the bulk of the facilities - the educational and art workshop areas - being near the main entrance just off Lake Washington Blvd., adjacent to several parking lots.

This park is in a relatively quiet area of the city with most of the background noise coming from overhead air traffic heading either for the Renton-Boeing airport or float planes landing near the southern end of Lake Washington. The air traffic is very light, so chances are that your visit to Seward Park will be entirely tranquil and free of nearly all routine city noises, making this a very good park for escapes from the hurley-burley of city life. With the excellent condition of the 2.4 mile shoreline trail, this is also an excellent park for bladers, skaters, runners and cyclists who want to build up miles and endurance.

Occasionally, across Andrews Bay from the park, there are model aircraft hobbyists who fly large remote-controlled airplanes - model float planes - from the boat launch area on the city side of Andrews Bay. Standing along the reeds near the bay in Seward Park, one can catch egrets fishing and model float planes taking off and landing. There are eagle's nest in the old-growth forest, too, so on a good day one can also catch a glimpse of these magnificent birds heading up and out for their daily fishing activities. Because the park is relatively secluded and in a quiet neighborhood, there are no nearby restaurants or cafes. But, the Rainier Beach urban village is just about half-a-mile down Lake Washington Blvd. from the park and provides a pretty good selection of places to eat or to get snacks and other items. There are also a few other smaller parks along that stretch of neighborhood roadway, so someone on foot or using a bike will have a reasonably continuous parklike experience getting to a meal at Rainier Beach.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 39 goes directly by the main entrance to the park. The nearest cafes, restaurants or shops are in the Rainier Beach neighborhood, about half-a-mile further south along the main local thoroughfare - Lake Washington Blvd.


Warren G. Magnuson Park - 320 acres
<http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/parks/Magnuson/default.htm>

This is the former Sand Point Naval Air Station, and is on a promontory which sticks out from the northeast section of the city into Lake Washington. The promontory is a marsh and even as a Naval Air Station it was a wildlife sanctuary. Once the Navy pulled out in the '70s, the land and its buildings and runways and docks and whatnot were split between the City of Seattle and Dept. of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA - the hurricane, tsunami, volcano, weird weather folks as well as the National Weather Service). NOAA's portion is still active and is the center of hydrology for NOAA for this section of the world. The rest of the land, mostly the southern flat plains area and nearly all the really fancy buildings, went to the city. And, remember this was a Navy base for nearly fifty years. There are some Captains (and family) quarters on site which are as fancy a set of Georgian architecture "homes for rich folks" as have ever been built. The Navy spared no expense in times gone by. Anyway, there must be hundreds of thousands of square feet of covered, hangar, warehouse, office and residential space which the city inherited. A few of these have already been turned into organization headquarters for such things as bike clubs and neighborhood parks committees and city recycling groups. One or more of the huge main hangars are used twice a year for the Seattle Public Library used book sale - which covers at least five acres of area with tables filled with books and narrow aisles with hundreds of people trying to browse.

The parkland itself is in the flat, marshy, area which follows the shoreline from before the bend to all the way around. It's a perimeter trail which weaves in and out of the Lake Washington beaches and marshlands. There's quite a few trees which weren't wacked down by the Navy - though they look like carefully-planted forest stands - so they really are not what was here originally, which got removed to make way for the buildings and ramps and runways.

It's an interesting park in many ways. When it was a Navy base in the '70s, I used to bike up to the main gate and wish that they allowed random cyclists to be able to bike along the lakeshore. But then it was active and there were helicopter and other comings and goings which cyclists, I'm sure, would get too curious about. The views haven't changed that much except that the other side of Lake Washington, which back then was mostly forest, is now mostly suburban homes climbing up the other shore or some taller buildings of the new suburban centers. It's pretty quiet because this section of the city is surrounded by mostly other fancy neighborhoods with only one real main street through the area - Sand Point Way, which starts down on the lakeside end of the U-District and continues a loop around the promontory and back into the center of the north end at Lake City. This area of town is generally hilly and has some steep slopes. Sand Point, or Warren G. Magnuson Park as it was renamed, is one of the few areas where you can look east and see the slopes and ridges of the northeast sections of the city.

Other than having a huge collection of buildings and other strange artifacts (an abandoned fire station, for instance), and this fantastic mile-long lake shore and marshland trail, the park also has several structured playground areas, several ball lots (and will soon be the location of a new city mega-playing-field, like a dozen baseball diamonds/soccer fields), and an unleashed dog park. Another added treat is the delicatessen-bakery-coffee house which is right across from the main entrance. Fantastic treats and good coffee.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 75 goes right by the main entrance. This is a crosstown bus and can be caught in downtown Ballard or downtown U-District. There aren't many amenities in this part of town but there's the 60th Street Delicatessen on 60th and Sand Point Way, right across from the park entrance, and this is one great sandwich, catering, baking, and coffee shop.


Volunteer Park
<http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/volpark.htm>

This is right on the tip-top of Capitol Hill snuggled in between two upper-crust neighborhoods on the east and west and by the toniest set of homes on the hill on the south and a venerated cemetery on the north. A special place in a lot of ways. The water tower is of the old-school variety with an interior steel tank surrounded by twin-spiral staircases set inside a brick and mortar outside shell. It's about sixty feet up and on top there are large, screened, windows open to the outside world. This view is an encompassing one which spans the Sound to Lake Washington and the Olympics to Cascades but also Magnolia, West Seattle, downtown, Beacon Hill and the lower reaches of Renton and the cross-lake towers of Bellevue. Quite a view, every bit worth the walk. And, no matter what the weather this place delights because it opens to such a vast outdoor space. Below is the reservoir fronting the plaza for the Asian Art Museum <http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAAM.asp>with a nice collection of outdoor sculpture in the plaze. Behind the Asian Art Museum is a grand sloping glade which has huge shade trees placed strategically to provide the museum with neutral and filtered natural light. How dapper, how terribly Olmsted, of which Volunteer Park is another variant. The arboretum's original planting scheme was an Olmsted collaboration, too.

Also on the grounds is the Conservatory, a very nicely-done glass greenhouse with exotic plants including a convincing cactus collection. Smallish if you're used to the U.S. Botanical Gardens in the shadow of the Capitol in DC, but still well-done, especially considering it's done out of city taxes and volunteer efforts. Behind the Conservatory is a really nice old cemetery with great views of the Lake Union area and the U-District and Wallingford and points beyond. The Asian Art Museum is also first quality, although, like the Conservatory, a bit on the small-ish side in terms of space. Both exceedingly well done and each containing wonderful diversions - living plants or art of the living past.

The combination of open fields behind the Asian Art Museum and on the north side of the reservoir make Volunteer Park a perfect spot for festivals and combination neighborhood-cause events. It's pretty much always sunny in this part of town, too, which helps bring people out and with all the huge trees providing shade it's the perfect spot to bike to, bus to, or walk to and just browse around or sit next to a tree and read or people gaze.

Transportation and amenities: Metro bus 10 and 12 go up 15th and 19th Avenues, respectively, from Pike Place Market area. There's a short walk since the park is west of 15th. Local amenities include a small gift shop and a slew of restaurants, cafes and bars along 15th Avenue and a little further west along Broadway. 

Posted: Thu - July 14, 2005 at 12:35 AM          

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