When I first heard about the shelter-in-place order, I thought that it meant we weren’t allowed to go outside, and I have to admit I freaked out a little bit. A lot actually. Then I calmed down and read the rules around essential activities, and was SO EXTREMELY RELIEVED that the following was deemed essential:
“Engaging in outdoor activity, such as walking, hiking or running provided that they maintain at least 6 feet of social distancing.”
So this seemed like the perfect timing to publish my little guide to my favorite hidden forests of Seattle. Some of these took me years to find, and some I’ve known and loved for years. Either way, they are all gems and I invite you to enjoy them during isolation and beyond. Keep that 6 feet distance and enjoy, my friends!
FAUNTLEROY PARK
This special place nestled in the Fauntleroy neighborhood of West Seattle is a series of interweaving trails that invoke a kind of medieval feeling. Walking here I feel as if I’m about to encounter Robin Hood or an old cart on the way to the royal city. This is one of the woods I’ve discovered more recently, on a rainy day last fall with a forest bathing client. It was new to both of us, and we were completely enchanted. During mushroom season, it was ripe with Conocybe mushrooms. Big and quiet enough that far enough in, you feel like you’re in the Issaquah Alps, it’s an extremely special find that allows you to have a deep forest hang without leaving the city.
Hot tip: One sweet gem is that around a couple of corners here, there are little platforms about the size of docks that would be great for meditation, picnics, or little medieval jam sessions for the birds.
Recommended materials: Blanket, picnic snacks, and small instruments preferably medieval (mandolin, lute, thumb harp, ukulele, harmonica...)
Address: 3951 SW Barton St, Seattle, WA 98136
Hours: 6am - 10pm
FRINK PARK
This is another one with interweaving trails hidden completely unassumingly in the middle of Leschi, featuring fairytale bridges and hidden staircases that if you take them to top give you a really good workout and a peak of Lake Washington.* You can also stay farther below and take a breezy stroll through the woods. This is a place where my partner and I like to take journals or books, find a log to sit on, and take a minute to write or read (yeah, I’m definitely not always up for those stairs). I also have a history of coming here when I don’t feel so good, and it’s great medicine. This park also bleeds into Leschi Park if you cross over S Frink Place. This is where you’ll find Leschi Bridge, which has a fascinating history:
“Leschi Bridge, named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe, was once part of a route that played a vital role in Seattle transportation, linking settlers along Lake Washington to what is now Pioneer Square. Originally, the route was a trail created by the early Nisqually tribe, and later was used as a logging road by white settlers. Eventually, the Seattle Railroad Company decided the trail was an ideal site for a cable car bridge, which it completed in 1884.
The steam-powered cable cars, appointed with stained glass and oil lamps, significantly decreased travel time from Lake Washington to downtown Seattle by transiting the original trail’s rough terrain and forest-covered ravines via the bridge’s high trestles. A portion of Leschi Bridge still arches over Lake Washington Boulevard; walkers use it to connect to nearby neighborhoods.”
- Eva Seelye for Seattle Magazine, This Forgotten Bridge Once Made an Important Connection
Stained glass and oil lamps! My heart yearns for this time.
*Hot tip: If you want to skip climbing the stairs, easy street = parking at S King St and 32nd Ave S. This will take you directly to the precipice where I love to do forest bathing with a view of the water. (See pic on right!)
Recommended materials: Journal, fantasy novel, blueberries, oil lamp
Address: 398 Lake Washington Blvd S, Seattle, WA 98144
Hours: 6am - 10pm
ME-KWA-MOOKS NATURAL AREA
I mention this place for one main reason: in the middle of the woods, there are rope swings that take you out over a little ravine and it is SO FUN. If you’re feeling adventurous and find yourself near Alki, check out this spot by taking the trail behind the picnic table area and heading south — there’s a great, easy walk through the woods and the rope swings come up about halfway in. It has been a few months since I visited, but I think/hope they are still there. I encountered this place with a friend and we were introduced to the rope swings by two 12 year old girls who were so friendly and cute that when they insisted we try the swings, we kind of couldn’t say no. You can, though! Either way, this is a nice small hike with fresh salty breezes, views of Puget Sound, and I mean, ROPE SWINGS.*
Me-Kwa-Mooks means "shaped like a bear's head" and was the Duwamish tribe’s name for the West Seattle peninsula. The park also has a classic old-timey Seattle history that although it begins with colonization, ends back in public lands.
“German immigrants Ferdinand and Emma Schmitz completed their 40-acre, 17-room West Seattle estate in 1904. Although they named it ‘Sans-Souci,’ French for ‘without care,’ it proved too much for their children to care for. In 1967 they tore it down, and established Me-Kwa-Mooks Park in its place.
… Ferdinand owned the Butler Hotel downtown, which [their grandson Alex] Schmitz described as "the finest hotel in Seattle at the turn of the century. It was full every night due to the Alaska gold rush.’”
- Steve Shay for Westside Seattle, Me-Kwa-Mooks Park History Revealed
Seattle Times writer Don Duncan described the Butler Hotel as, “the most famous hostelry and nightspot in our city’s history … Under its roof were quartered prima donnas and Presidents, gold-rush promoters and railroad magnates, cigar-puffing politicians and the glittering stars of touring vaudeville shows.”
- Paul Dorpat for the Seattle Times, Famous guests visited Seattle’s Hotel Butler
The hotel featured a cabaret bar called the Rose Room that was one of the hottest hangouts in town. Famous guests included Buffalo Bill, presidents Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt, singer and actress Lillian Russell, and Herrman the Healer who called himself a magnetist and used some of the hotel’s private parlors for healing work using “animal magnetism” to cure chronic diseases.
Bonus: The tidepools across the street, according to Wikipedia, are home to: “limpets, lumpsuckers, blennies, chitons, nudibranches, sea stars, sea slugs, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs and an array of other tidepool dwellers.” I have heard of about three of these but they all sound like creatures a Scottish grandma would talk about in a really amazing accent.
Hot tip: Rope swings! (Try at your own risk!!)
Recommended materials: An adventurous spirit, a sans-souci attitude, travel mug with a tea latte
Address: 4000 - 5000, Aikins Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116
Hours: Natural Area — 4am - 11:30pm | Park — 6am - 10pm
KUBOTA GARDEN
I mean, where to begin. I still think of this place as hidden, because many people I mention it to have still not heard of it, but it is starting to get more attention and it deserves all of it. Blooming from a totally unexpected alcove of Rainier Beach, this Japanese garden and park is a completely enchanting sanctum of tiny waterfalls, azaleas, koi ponds, and bridges that look straight out of a Moomintroll book. I always remember the first time I came here with my friend Katy in 2012 and we didn’t see a single other person the entire time and began to wonder if the rest of the world still existed. That’s exactly how it still feels here, like the world has faded and you can just exist for a time in a storybook.
Not one to be outdone by parks with COOL SEATTLE HISTORY, this 20-acre garden was carved out of a forest by Fujitaro Kubota, a Japanese emigrant who came to Seattle from the Island of Shikoku in 1907. The garden was originally built around the home he shared with his family who, even after being interrupted by the terrible years of internment, cut back the years of overgrowth with a scythe and completed Kubota’s vision for the park.
In 1972 the Japanese Government awarded Kubota with the Fifth Class Order of the Sacred Treasure, “for his achievements in his adopted country, for introducing and building respect for Japanese Gardening in this area.” In 1981 it was declared a Historical Landmark of the City of Seattle.
ALSO, there are rumors of a ghost here.
Hot tip: On the northeast corner of the park, there is a stand of low trees gnarled together to form a wonderland below. If you crawl under, there’s room to sit in the cool speckled sunlight of a natural tree fort. Storybook!
Recommended materials: Books of poetry, sake, a sense of wonder
Address: 55th Avenue South, Seattle, WA
Hours: 6am - 10pm
Note from Kubota Gardens website: Although the parking lot may be closed, Kubota Garden remains open to provide our community a serene sanctuary. To ease the strain on our health care system, please practice a physical distance of at least 6-feet between you/your family and others. All tours and volunteer events are canceled through April 30, 2020.