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Located inside Volunteer Park, one of the city's oldest water towers has been rebuilt with an observation deck at the top. There is no elevator, but the two half-spiral staircases that lead to the top will provide you with lots of free exercise as you climb to the top. There is no elevator or other alternative to climbing the stairs as the structure and its use as a viewpoint predate the common provision of such amenities.
From the top of the water tower, it is possible to have a true 360 degre view, of sorts. Downtown, the Space Needle, the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier, Lake Washington, and the ridge of the Cascade Mountains heading north are all visibile from up here.
Best of all?
Getting to the observation deck is absolutely free of charge, unlike the Space Needle or the Columbia Center Skyview or a few other locations with a great view.
I found it necessary to turn the camera upside down in order to get through the grates over the windows for some of the photos I took. If you bring a step stool or ladder and carry it up all 170 steps to the top of the tower, you could also get over the top of the tightest grate and possibly get better photographs that way. The grate that is higher up has a much larger grid pattern, and would be easier to get the lens of a camera through. It would require considerable effort to drag something like that up here, however.
NOTE: On a clear day you can see Mt Rainier just fine with your eyes, but to get it to show up with your camera (digital or film) you will need UV filters or other specialized equipment, or come here when the light is set exactly right such as near sunset. This has to do with the way standard photographic equipment works over such long distances and through air with smog in it. The photos that I have posted here are fairly typical of this phenomena: there should be snow capped mountains in photos 3 and 5, but they don't show up on film or digital camera.
As for the hours of operation, the signs say "Open Daily at 10 AM, Closed Evenings by Security Service" without any idea as to when in the evening the doors are closed.
The best time to get photographs of the views around Seattle is near sunrise or sunset, as that is when the mountains are most visible. Sunrise isn't going to happen at this water tower as the opening time is 10 am. In the summer, sunsets are not possible either due to the tower closing much too early. Sunset can be as late as 9:45 here. However, a rare winter clear day can provide a wonderful opportunity, as the sunset happens before 6 in the evening. For some results of this, please see my Photos from Volunteer Park Water Tower travelogue. This travelogue also features a look at one of the windows and how it is a bit hard to take photos through it due to the protective barriers. Only certain angles and certain photo equipment work (think small camera with zoom lens that can protrude between the wires, and being very selective about the angles at which you can shoot).
The signs do say that it is possible to call 684-4555 for more information about the water tower or Volunteer Park. It does not, however, give an area code for this phone number.
The observation deck also has a set of historical plans and documents relating to the creation of the Seattle parks network, and the plans created by the Olmstead Brothers, who made a special trip from New York to explore Seattle. At the time they said that there was nothing from stopping Seattle from becoming one of the top cities in the world in terms of its parks system.
I can't possibly imagine dragging the park benches and display boards all the way up here on those staircases!
The web site below is for Volunteer Park and not specific to the water tower.
How to Get Here:
The official address of the park is 1247 15th Ave. E. The best bus route to take to get here is bus route 10, which also serves the Capitol Hill community. You can drive, but on a really clear day it will be difficult to find parking as everyone else will be here for the views and to enjoy the sunlight. Bus route #10 is somewhat slow, but it does run fairly frequently.
See also:
My Volunteer Park Tip
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1e6da4/
The outside of the water tower is shown in photo 3 on this tip.
My Photos from Volunteer Park Water Tower on 26 December 2009:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/c250a/
These were taken near sunset on a winter day, so it is possible to see the snow on the surrounding mountains in some of the photos. It is also possible to see the limitations of the windows installed in this structure in the very last photograph.
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Located right next to the Ballard Locks, this garden is a wonderful park-like collection of trees, flowers and other plants. I happened to get my first visit in May, when all the rhododendron were in bloom.
Most of the trails are paved, but there are one or two that are not paved.
The gardens were created on the former barren wasteland construction site of the Ballard Locks, and in all over 40 years were spent collecting and planting them. There are over 400 species of plants.
Benches are spread throughout the facility, and you can find a spot in the sun or shade (assuming, of course, the day happens to have enough sunlight to create either). The gardens are very well maintained, and on a warm day you will find locals having a picnic lunch here.
On the south side of the garden, there is a set of terraced steps for those who wish to sit on the grassy slope and watch the ships and boats go through the Ballard Locks. However, there is little shade in that particular section of the garden, and it can get hot there on a summer day. See my Ballard Locks tip for a photo of this area, as it is one of the better places to watch the boats go through the locks. It is the big green grass area in the foreground of the first photo.
The official address is 3015 NW 54th Street, Seattle Washington. It is located on the grounds of the Ballard Locks, and maintained by the same United States Army Corps of Engineers group that maintains the locks. See web site, below.
There is no charge to enter the garden grounds, but there is a standard city parking meter at the parking lot out front.
How to Get Here: From the Ballard area, head west on Market Street until it branches into two one way streets. The Ballard Locks parking area is one block west and one block south of this division in the road. Bus routes #17 (from downtown Seattle) and #44 (from the University District) are the two most frequent bus routes that serve the area. It is also a fairly easy walk to get here from the main Ballard business district, though much of the route is next to busy Market Street.
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You will hear of the Seattle Zoo referred to as the "Woodland Park Zoo" and so it is, as that is the name of the city park where it is located.
However, you will find that aside of the zoo, this park is nowhere near as busy as the zoo implies. People think of Woodland Park as being the zoo and zoo only, and forget that there is a "rest of the park" to Woodland Park.
The main body of the park outside the zoo area includes a number of walking trails, picnic areas (both covered and uncovered), and an outdoor but covered horseshoe area (see photo 5). As the name "Woodland Park" implies, much of the park is in forest, though there are also a number of large expanses of open grass.
Organized sports use facilities here for lawn bowling, bocce, and 6 wicket croquet.
The forested area of the park is connected to the zoo, rose garden, and war memorial area by way of several pedestrian bridges that cross over the top of Highway 99, providing a wonderful traffic-free way of getting to the various popular attractions on the west side of the highway and the much more quiet forested area on the east side of the highway.
To the east of Woodland park, the park adjoins Green Lake Park. This is also a very popular park with a walking loop around the entire lake. However, the road between Woodland Park and Green Lake Park is busy without any crossing method available other than just wait for traffic and hope for the best. No traffic signals, no pedestrian bridges, no nothing other than hope for the best. This method can take a very long time, if you run across a lot of drivers that are in a huge hurry to get places.
Other Places inside Woodland Park include:
+ The Woodland Park Zoo (as mentioned)
+ The Rose Garden (just east of the zoo entrance)
+ The War Memorial
Getting Here: highway 99 north from downtown Seattle. You can follow signs to zoo parking, but parking there costs $5 per car. For park itself, parking is free if you turn right off of highway 99 north of the pedestrian underpasses.
Bus route 5 runs past the entrance to the zoo, and several serve the area around Green Lake Park. Route 358 has a stop several blocks north of the very north edge of the park. Route 44, Ballard - University District is several blocks south of the park.
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Going east and slightly north of downtown Seattle, you will hit the Capitol Hill area of the city. Among the large old houses of this community, you will find Volunteer Park, which features a view of the Space Needle with the Olympic Mountains behind it. There are a number of gravel trails, an old water tower has been converted into a viewing platform which provides even more expansive views of the surrounding area, and a conservatory (built in 1912) with plant species from all over the world. This park is also the home of the Asian American Art Museum, which is a division of the Seattle Art Museum.
I have put the Volunteer Park Water Tower into a separate tip as it is an attraction in its own right due to the wonderful view from the top. I have also put the Volunteer Park Conservatory in its own tip.
The name Volunteer Park was adopted in 1901 as a memorial to the "volunteers" that served in the Spanish American war. A number of other monuments and public art works have been added over the years.
In many ways the park is a fairly typical city park: it has a lot of trees and open grass space. There is an open outdoor ampitheatre area where sometimes you can find students from the University of Washington or other local universities practicing their plays. There are gravel and paved trails throughout the park. The busiest road is that which runs directly on the east side of the park, and that is easy to get away from.
The official address of the park is 1247 15th Ave. E. The best bus route to take to get here is bus route 10, which also serves the Capitol Hill community. You can drive, but on a really clear day it will be difficult to find parking as everyone else will be here for the views and to enjoy the sunlight. Bus route #10 is somewhat slow, but it does run fairly frequently.
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In 1903, it was recommended to the Seattle City council that the Bailey Peninsula be purchased for use as a city park that would become a jewel in the southeast corner of the city. That goal was accomplished, and today this unique peninsula into Lake Washington is publicly available for anyone to come and enjoy. The name of the park is now Seward Park.
Features include several playgrounds, covered picnic areas (some of which have grill pits), a large outdoor ampitheatre, and a paved loop trail that goes all the way around the peninsula. While the signs refer to "beaches" it should be known that these beaches are not sand beaches, but are rock beaches with smooth round stones rather than sand. This is fairly typical of beaches in the Puget Sound and Lake Washington areas.
A huge portion of the park remains relatively untamed forest with dirt or bark dust trails. Some of this has a wide paved road through it.
On a clear day, views from the various trails in the park include Mount Rainier to the southeast and downtown Seattle with Andrews Bay (the bay formed by the peninsula the park sits on) in the foreground. To the west and northwest you will be able to see lesser peaks of the Cascades.
PLEASE NOTE: there is an unfortunate problem with trying to photograph snow capped mountains in the distance from an urban area: smog cuts out the mountain! In photo 2, you will see my attempt to photograph Mount Rainier from the park. Despite being able to see the mountain just fine with my eyes, the camera almost did not pick it up. You have to look very closely to find it in the photo. While I was using a digital camera, the problem is the same with film as well. UV filters do cut down on this a little bit, but unfortunately most of the time it is just necessary to enjoy the view, and not worry if the mountain will appear in the photos or not.
While not publicly accessible, there is a fish hatery located inside the park. It is fenced off.
During fish runs, you will probably see people fishing from the land and from a few of the piers in the park.
Some of the picnic areas in the park may be reserved for group events by calling a number listed on the signs. There was even a wedding going on in one of these picnic areas, on Monday!, on the day I visited the park.
How to get here: If you don't know Seattle, the once every half hourly bus #39 is a pretty easy way to get here, and stops only a block away from the entrance to the park. If you insist on driving, you can take Boren Avenue southeast out of downtown. This changes names to Rainier as it crosses Martin Luther King Way.Turn left at Orcas, and right onto Seward Park Avenue. After a very brief distance, you will see the park entrance on your left at Juneau Street.
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Located in the old Cascade neighborhood (today the area is nearly completely rebranded for real estate investment purposes as "South Lake Union"), Lake Union Park is exactly that: a public park sitting right on the edge of Lake Union. While there are a few other parks surrounding Lake Union, many of them are quite small and not easy to find. The largest park on Lake Union is Gas Works Park, but it is on the north side of the lake and thus not that easy to get to from downtown Seattle.
With the opening of Lake Union Park in 2011, a new publicly accessible section of the lake is available. It can (and in fact does - the Queen of Seattle is moored there regularly) serve as a boat mooring spot, a place to launch kayaks or other small craft, a picnic spot, and recreation and relaxation spot.
In hot weather, the new spouting sidewalk water feature may be a desirable place for children (or even adults) to play in the water.
There is a small beach, but it is a typical Puget Sound style beach with gravel instead of sand. Even so, it does provide water access to Lake Union - though I highly suggest not swimming in the water.
The biggest disadvantage the park has is the amount of noise coming from nearby busy roads, such as Westlake and Mercer.
In addition to the web site below from Seattle Parks, there is a dedicated park web site at
http://www.atlakeunionpark.org/
Parking in the area can be difficult to find. I suggest taking bus route #70 or #17 or the South Lake Union Streetcar, or other public transit to get here.
Japanese Garden is worth a visit for some relaxing meditation.
The pond has turtles as well as brightly coloured koi.
Washington Park Arboretum , 230-acre
40.000 native and exotic trees, shurbs, and vines.
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Stroll among magnificent beds of roses that bloom pretty much all year round but peak in May-August. This 2.5 acre formal garden is a tranquil spot with a gazebo, topiaries and 280 varieties of roses.
Seattle, like Portland, has a climate that is ideally suited to growing roses. The Seattle Rose Garden is one of only 24 "All-America Rose Selection Test Gardens" in the United States. Here you can find new varieties that are being tested before they make it to the public.
Enter the rose garden from Woodland Park Zoo's south parking lot. The #5 bus will let you off two blocks away at 50'th and Phinney.
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Officially speaking, the park is part of the University of Washington, but it is also operated as a city park. The park features a trail that runs along Union Bay between the Museum of History and Industry building and the Washington Park Arboretum. Not only does this trail serve as a convenient walking connection between the two locations, but also provides a wonderful pathway through the largest wetlands area that exists today in the Seattle area.
Due to the wetlands, it is a popular place for bird watching. It is also a popular place for kayakers and canoers to put their craft into the water and explore. On my visit on August 24, 2009 I saw perhaps 12 different canoes and kayaks exploring the area - and that was on a weekday.
The park lands surrounding the trail is made up of several islands. These islands are connected by bridges that allow very small craft to pass underneath. Watch your head! These bridges are *very* low, but people do pass under them. See photo 5 to see one of the bridges in the walkway.
A number of short branches off of the main trail lead to various observation platforms, and there is a fairly long floating section of the walkway that allows for some great views. As seen in photo 4, one of the viewing platforms is elevated above the rest of the surrounding plants and land.
Benches and a few picnic tables allow the visitor to sit and relax and watch traffic on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, or recreational craft of various types, or the birds that visit the area.
Official Address: 2802 E Park Dr. E Seattle Washington
Getting Here: Follow signs to Museum of History and Industry. By bus, the nearest bus routes are 25, 43, and 48. If you walk the entire way through the park and continue on into the Washington Park Arboretum, buses 11 and 84 serve the far south end of the arboretum, and this allows a visit with only some busy street crossing involved. If you come from the Washington Park Arboretum end, watch for a wide gravel trail that goes north from the visitor's center. Following this trail eventually leads to this section of the park.
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I stumbled across this memorial completely by accident. It is a small memorial to the war dead, including a flag pole and a bulletin board of upcoming events.
The cemetary was established in 1895, as the Seattle area was rapidly losing its veterans of the Civil War. The cemetary area also includes an open grass area on the west side of the park, which is empty of graves and is a place designated for people to walk there dogs, in order to prevent people from having the temptation to allow their pets relieve themselves on the graves or near the graves. It is not allowed to have pets in the cemetary area itself. As seen in photo three, this open grass area is separated from the cemetary by a very low shrub line so there should be no question as to what section is off limits to pets.
While Howe street is narrow and paved, the entry driveway for the cemetary is dirt and appears essentially unchanged since the cemetary was created in 1895. You may well be walking on the very dirt upon which Seattle's Civil War veterans were brought in to be laid to rest. The brick entryway is fairly new, however, having been completed only a few years ago. Across the dirt driveway from the entryway is an engraved memorial stone.
In our youth our hearts were touched wth fire
We have shared
The incommunicable experience of war
We have felt, we still feel
The passion of life to the top
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Along with the official web site of the City of Seattle (below), the park also has a "Friends of the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetary" group with a web site as well:
http://www.fgar.org/
Other than a gravel turn-around for vehicles, a brick entry way, the graves, and a flagpole, there is little in this park, and the graves are all very simple stones, which is probably to be expected: the usual people that fought in that war were not wealthy, and probably died without much available to spend on grave stones.
In order to help with the upkeep of the cemetary, visitors are requested to not leave any plastic or other artificial flowers on the grave stones.
How to Get Here:
North on 15th Avenue East until you pass Volunteer Park and the Lakeview Cemetary. Turn left onto E Howe Street. Cemetary is on north side of the road, slightly west of 14th Street and east of 12th Street. Bus route is trolley bus route number 10, from downtown Seattle, which stops at Grandview Place and E Garfield Street. Route 49 at 10th and Howe is closer, but requires somewhat of an uphill climb to get to the cemetary.
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