"Volunteer Park Watertower Observation Deck" Top 5 Page for this destination National/Local - Parks/Gardens Tip by glabah

Located inside Volunteer Park, one of the city's oldest water towers has been rebuilt with an observation deck at the top. There is no elevator, but the two half-spiral staircases that lead to the top will provide you with lots of free exercise as you climb to the top. There is no elevator or other alternative to climbing the stairs as the structure and its use as a viewpoint predate the common provision of such amenities.

From the top of the water tower, it is possible to have a true 360 degre view, of sorts. Downtown, the Space Needle, the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier, Lake Washington, and the ridge of the Cascade Mountains heading north are all visibile from up here.

Best of all?
Getting to the observation deck is absolutely free of charge, unlike the Space Needle or the Columbia Center Skyview or a few other locations with a great view.

I found it necessary to turn the camera upside down in order to get through the grates over the windows for some of the photos I took. If you bring a step stool or ladder and carry it up all 170 steps to the top of the tower, you could also get over the top of the tightest grate and possibly get better photographs that way. The grate that is higher up has a much larger grid pattern, and would be easier to get the lens of a camera through. It would require considerable effort to drag something like that up here, however.

NOTE: On a clear day you can see Mt Rainier just fine with your eyes, but to get it to show up with your camera (digital or film) you will need UV filters or other specialized equipment, or come here when the light is set exactly right such as near sunset. This has to do with the way standard photographic equipment works over such long distances and through air with smog in it. The photos that I have posted here are fairly typical of this phenomena: there should be snow capped mountains in photos 3 and 5, but they don't show up on film or digital camera.

As for the hours of operation, the signs say "Open Daily at 10 AM, Closed Evenings by Security Service" without any idea as to when in the evening the doors are closed.

The best time to get photographs of the views around Seattle is near sunrise or sunset, as that is when the mountains are most visible. Sunrise isn't going to happen at this water tower as the opening time is 10 am. In the summer, sunsets are not possible either due to the tower closing much too early. Sunset can be as late as 9:45 here. However, a rare winter clear day can provide a wonderful opportunity, as the sunset happens before 6 in the evening. For some results of this, please see my Photos from Volunteer Park Water Tower travelogue. This travelogue also features a look at one of the windows and how it is a bit hard to take photos through it due to the protective barriers. Only certain angles and certain photo equipment work (think small camera with zoom lens that can protrude between the wires, and being very selective about the angles at which you can shoot).

The signs do say that it is possible to call 684-4555 for more information about the water tower or Volunteer Park. It does not, however, give an area code for this phone number.

The observation deck also has a set of historical plans and documents relating to the creation of the Seattle parks network, and the plans created by the Olmstead Brothers, who made a special trip from New York to explore Seattle. At the time they said that there was nothing from stopping Seattle from becoming one of the top cities in the world in terms of its parks system.

I can't possibly imagine dragging the park benches and display boards all the way up here on those staircases!

The web site below is for Volunteer Park and not specific to the water tower.

How to Get Here:
The official address of the park is 1247 15th Ave. E. The best bus route to take to get here is bus route 10, which also serves the Capitol Hill community. You can drive, but on a really clear day it will be difficult to find parking as everyone else will be here for the views and to enjoy the sunlight. Bus route #10 is somewhat slow, but it does run fairly frequently.

See also:

My Volunteer Park Tip
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1e6da4/
The outside of the water tower is shown in photo 3 on this tip.

My Photos from Volunteer Park Water Tower on 26 December 2009:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/c250a/
These were taken near sunset on a winter day, so it is possible to see the snow on the surrounding mountains in some of the photos. It is also possible to see the limitations of the windows installed in this structure in the very last photograph.

Phone: 684-4555
Website: http://www.seattle.gov/PARKS/park_detail.asp?id=399