Wild Waves Theme Park is just 30 minutes south of Seattle, near Tacoma. The water park is popular with families and thrill seekers, and is a major summer attraction. The park's rides range from faster, adrenaline-inducing slides to calmer attractions for young children. The Cannon Bowl is a large chute that spins riders around the perimeter before dropping them into a pool at the bottom. A 24,000-foot wave pool and a family raft ride are other highlights. Several amusements and rides do not involve water, so visiting Wild Waves on a cooler day isn't a complete bust. The park also hosts a concert series in summer.
Great Wolf Lodge, in Grand Mound, is a little over an hour south of Seattle. Overnight guests at the lodge have access to its indoor water park, which makes it a favorite year-round destination of families throughout the Northwest. The park's many highlights include Fort Mackenzie, a four-story tree house that dumps buckets of water on unsuspecting kids; River Canyon Run, a water slide mimicking a mountain whitewater rafting experience; and Howlin' Tornado, an enormous, six-story funnel slide.
The city of Seattle operates a host of pools and swimming areas, from indoor and outdoor swimming pools to wading pools. The swimming pools have designated lap swim times when the pools are set aside for exercise and open swim hours when families can cool off under supervision of a lifeguard. These pools include the Ballard Pool, Medgar Evers Pool and Queen Anne Pool, among others. Other parks simply have shallow wading pools meant for young children; these include Volunteer Park, Miller Playfield and Lincoln Park. Hours are posted on the City of Seattle's website.
Two other major water parks are in Washington outside the Seattle area. Slidewaters, at the popular summer vacation area of Lake Chelan, is about three hours from Seattle. The water park has a lazy river, hot tub and range of slides to suit all ages. Splash Down water park is about four hours away in Spokane Valley. The park is a favorite of Spokane residents hoping to beat the much longer and hotter eastern Washington summers. Attractions include Water Wars, where visitors can launch water balloons through cannons at each other; Fastball, a water slide that sends daredevils on a six-story free fall; and Cannon Bowl, a four-story bowl for one- or two-person tubes.
