The city’s largest park once served as a military base in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood. Fort Lawton finally became Discovery Park in 1973, 15 years after the U.S. government offered to sell the surplus property to the city for $1. With 534 acres of natural features, Discovery Park’s forests, sand dunes and streams have been left in a semi-natural state for environmental learning or to simply enjoy. From the park’s vantage point on Magnolia Bluff you can see remarkable mountain views of the Cascade Range and the Olympic Mountains beyond the span of Puget Sound. Don’t miss the picturesque Discovery Park Lighthouse, which sits at the end of a long, sandy point that juts into the water.
Carkeek Park, in the Broadview neighborhood of North Seattle, has great mountain views, with the Olympic Mountains becoming dramatic, backlit silhouettes at sunset. "One of the biggest draws here is the sandy beach on the sound, which is accessed over a pedestrian bridge," said Dewey Potter, communications manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation. “This is the only park where fires are allowed on the beach,” she added. In addition to the saltwater beach, the park has verdant forests, meadows and a salmon-bearing stream, which the salmon return to in November from the sea. "When the creek's salmon disappeared some years ago we worked with the Muckleshoot Tribe in a program to bring back the big fish to Piper Creek in Carkeek Park,“ Potter recalled. The salmon theme is played out through education programs and at a kids’ area.
After deactivation in 1970 of Naval Air Station Seattle on a peninsula in a northeast Sand Point neighborhood, the tarmac and old grounds were transformed into the city's second largest public park, Warren G. Magnuson Park. Named after a former U.S. senator from Washington state, Magnuson Park’s 350 acres integrate a mix of nature, history, leisure and recreation. From boating and swimming to field sports and nature areas, this former airfield offers not only trails and playgrounds, but also a boat ramp, ball fields, biking, an off-leash area and a butterfly garden.
Seattle’s largest freshwater swimming beach is Matthews Beach Park on the west shore of Lake Washington, just north of Magnuson Beach. During the summer the bathing beach is open, with two lifeguards and a diving platform offshore. Golden Gardens Park is in the Ballard area on Puget Sound, north of Shilshole Bay Marina. Parks recreation coordinator Marc Hoffman, whose assignments take him to many of Seattle’s public gems, noted that inside the park are wetlands, trails through forest groves and an off-leash spot. “It’s a great beach, with fishing from a pier and a boat launch,” said Hoffman, who also advised, “Puget Sound's seawater temperatures hover around 50 degrees Fahrenheit even in the summer, which can make swimming uncomfortable unless you have a wetsuit.”
Completely dominated by its freshwater lake, Green Lake Park is northeast of Woodland Park Zoo and the Wallingford neighborhood. It is a glacial lake, hollowed out -- along with Lake Washington and Puget Sound -- by the Vashon glacier 50,000 years ago. A divided 2.8-mile asphalt path that circles the lake serves pedestrians and dog walkers, bicyclists and roller skaters. A newer crushed granite trail, which is closest to the lake, is reserved just for walkers and joggers. The lanes are particularly crowded on sunny days with Seattleites, who seem to esteem vigorous walking, rain or shine. Park amenities include outdoor basketball and tennis courts, a play area, community center, rental facility and a boat launch for hand-carry boats. The lake sometimes posts notices about swimming issues, especially if the water becomes stagnant in the summer.
