Whether you’re looking to see some unique plants, have a nice place to eat lunch, or read a book below a tree, Seattle likely has a park for you. The city is absolutely filled with them, of all different shapes and sizes. Some of these you may know of, some of them you may not. Today, we are looking at the best parks in Seattle.
The Best Parks in Seattle
Seattle has absolutely no shortage of greenery, this is why the city is referred to as “The Emerald City”. If you didn’t already know the origin of that nickname, check out our article about it here where we go into more detail. While the rainy months are the most green, it’s not easy to enjoy a park when it’s pouring outside. Don’t worry, the summers are still awesome.
1. Discovery Park
This is easily the largest of all the parks in Seattle, and one of the coolest. This park is not only for recreational enjoyment, it’s also a wildlife sanctuary and serves to provide education for people to learn about the natural world. This park really has it all including forests, meadows, beaches, cliffs, and sand dunes (what!).
If you’re looking for a park to discover (get it?), then this is the one. You can spend hours in a day just exploring this place. Or you could come back across multiple days and visit a new spot in the park each time. The place is over 500 acres, so you’ve got your work cut out for you! If you decide to visit here, consider checking out other places on the Ultimate Seattle Bucket List.
2. Gas Works Park
While not nearly as big as Discovery Park, Gas Works Park is a famous attraction nonetheless. The park occupies about 19 acres of land on the shore of Lake Union, and is a common destination among tourists. The park contains the remnants of the last remaining coal gasification plat in the United States. The plant operated for 50 years from 1906 to 1956, and was bought by the city of Seattle in 1962 to become a park. In 1975, the park was finally opened to the public.
Today, Gas Works incorporates many remnants of the old plant. Some are left as ruins, and some were painted or turned into a children’s play area. One thing is for sure, and that this is a truly strange park. I can’t think of any other city that has a park quite like this one. That, though, is what makes this one so special, and why you should check it out when you get the chance.
3. Kerry Park
Kerry Park has arguably some of the best views in Seattle. It sits right in the heart of Queen Anne and has a fantastic overlook of the Seattle skyline. So far this is the smallest park on the list, coming in at a whopping 1.2 acres, but the park itself is not the main attraction here. It’s the perfect view of downtown that you get.
Sure, the park is still neat. There’s a playground, there’s a sculpture, and there’s a house used in Grey’s Anatomy just up the road. But really, you can’t beat this view. That’s why this park is included in our list of the best Instagram locations in Seattle.
4. Volunteer Park
There is so much to Volunteer Park, this could be a whole day trip in itself. The park is a 48 acre park in Capital Hill with loads to offer. The most notable feature of the park is, of course, the Conservatory. This is a collection of 5 buildings each with their own set climate to host a variety of different plant life. The conservatory is over 100 years old, and an incredible place to visit, since it basically has its own weather inside. That’s why I included it in our list of Seattle’s best rainy day activities.
Outside of the Conservatory, however, is just as cool. The park is filled with history, dating back around a hundred years. It also contains an amphitheater, a water tower with an observation deck which was completed in 1906, statues, memorials, sculptures, and even a pool in the summer! You also can’t miss the Koi ponds with tons of cool fish. This is one of the most interesting parks in Seattle, so definitely check it out when you get the opportunity.
5. Olympic Sculpture Park
Chanilim714, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Seattle loves its art, there’s no secret about it. If, for whatever reason, you needed more proof of that, then look no further than the Olympic Sculpture Park. The park is located only a few blocks away from the space needle, so not a long walk out of the way. Not only is this a park, but it is also a museum. It was created and is currently operated by the Seattle Art Museum and is its own exhibit with free admission.
The park combines museum attractions with the beauty of a park. It sits right on the water, so bring your picnic basket and have a nice meal after enjoying the artwork. The park is a total of 9 acres and features around 20 pieces of work. If you like art, or just cool parks in general, definitely pay a visit to the Olympic Sculpture Park.
6. Seattle Japanese Garden
frted, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Do you want to take a trip in the city but feel like you’re out of the country? The Seattle Japanese Garden is the place for you. The garden is 3.5 acres and sits in the southern end of the Washington Park Arboretum. This is one of the oldest Japanese gardens in North America and is commonly known as one of the most authentic Japanese gardens in the United States. That sounds like an awesome reason to visit to me.
The garden has an interesting history, too. It was lead by experts Kiyoshi Inoshita and Juki Iida, who were appointed as the lead designers of the project. From the start of fundraising to the completion of the construction, over 20 years had passed. Construction included bringing 500 granite boulders from the Cascade mountains which weighed between 1,000 pounds and 11 tons each. A teahouse was even donated to the project by the city of Tokyo. However, the teahouse was burned down by arsonists in 1973 and was finally rebuilt in 1981.
if you want to read our full guide on the Seattle Japanese Garden, you can do so here!
Conclusion
Seattle has tons of awesome parks, and this list only scratches the surface. If you think that there’s an awesome park in the city that we didn’t mention in this article, leave it in a comment down below and we may use it in a future article.
Hi, I’m Jared. I’m a life-long Washington resident, and love the big city. In my free time, I do YouTube, photography, coding, and more.
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