Seattle: Gas Works Park

 After grabbing some lunch at Mas Café we walked the block and a half down to Gas Works Park. It is a beautiful park that offers an amazing view of the back side of the Seattle skyline over Lake Union. This seems to be a little bit of a bad side of town, but we didn’t have any issues. We enjoyed our lunch with the great view.

The park contains remnants of the old gasification plant that operated from 1906 to 1956 when the city purchased it with intention to make it a park. The park opened to the public in 1975.

Location: 2000 N. Northlake Way
Time Needed: Oh probably at least a half hour
Cost: Free

First view of Lake Union.

We found a nice picnic table with this view. Wow!

Sea plane.

Coming in for a landing.

Tug boat pushing… something. Looks like a crane of some sort.

We had a crow waiting for us to drop part of our lunch.

The Seattle Skyline panoramic.

Leftover from the old plant.

The skyline above the lake.

Panoramic.

Really enjoying the view. I wish it wasn’t so hazy though.

With a plane.

With some shore.

Remnants from the old gasworks.

We did not cross this bridge on the way out here and I was really hoping we didn’t cross it on the way back. Unfortunately, we did but it wasn’t too bad.

The view again.

Kind of a pebbly beach.

Sorry guys. We don’t have anything appropriate to feed you.

Another airplane.

If I am reading this correctly this room, and some of the original equipment is the “Play Barn”. I know we weren’t as safety conscious back in the 70’s but yikes!

I’m sure they immobilized moving part (or maybe they didn’t we didn’t check) but I commented sarcastically that this are looks super safe for adult workers. We didn't know this was the play barn at the time.

More original gasworks parts. I love this description I found: “Gas Works Park is easily the strangest park in Seattle and may rank among the strangest in the world.". I agree. Wait, I take that back. I think the Gilgal Sculpture Garden might give it a good run.

The bathrooms here are probably some of the most run down and disgusting bathrooms I have ever used. o.O

Concrete Railroad Trestle Arches. Also part of the original 1906 gas plant. Trains would pull up and release coal into hoppers here.

From the side.

Here you can see Kite Hill which was artificially built. Plus a lot of geese! I kind of wish I had ventured up there. Apparently there is a neat sundial at the top.

We were going to walk to our next destination, less than a mile away but some were tired of walking so we decided to take an Uber instead. So, I enjoyed some of the fall color that was starting while we waited.

That was a great place to have our lunch. I really enjoyed the view of the skyline, as well as learning a little bit of history, and seeing some industrial history. Definitely worth a visit if you head towards this part of town.