Arriving was once a real journey. Well into the 20th century, most of Seattle could reach Alki only by boat, and from 1925 to 1936 a ferry even crossed Puget Sound from the point to Manchester on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Alki Beach, the Heart of the Neighborhood
Start at Alki Beach Park, the main draw, a city park that stretches along Elliott Bay between Alki Point and Duwamish Head. It has the easy feel of a Pacific Northwest beach town, with a thin strip of sand and saltwater on one side and bungalows, waterfront apartments and local restaurants lining the road on the other.
The views are the reason to linger. From nearly anywhere on the sand you can gaze across the water at downtown Seattle or west toward the Olympic Mountains. Stroll or ride the paved bike and foot trail, which runs several miles along the shore and looks out toward Blake Island.
Before You Go
- Swimming: Puget Sound stays cold, so plan on walking and lounging rather than a long swim.
- Access: The beach is accessible for wheelchair users, and roller skaters love the flat path.
- Crowds: Summer gets busy, especially on weekends, so arrive early on a sunny Saturday if you want room to spread out.
The Story of New York Alki
Long before American settlers arrived, the Duwamish people cultivated and gathered food on nearby prairies here, keeping them open with seasonal burning. Their Lushootseed name for the point, sbaqʷabqs, means prairie point.
The Denny Party came ashore on November 13, 1851, and laid out a settlement of six blocks with eight lots each, which they named New York Alki. Alki is a Chinook Jargon word meaning by and by, or eventually, and New York may have honored the home state of several settlers.
That name proved a little too hopeful. The following April, Arthur A. Denny left for a better harbor on the east shore of Elliott Bay, the site now called Pioneer Square. Charles C. Terry and a few others stayed on for a time, but most eventually followed, and the area later belonged to the separate city of West Seattle from 1902 until Seattle annexed it in 1907.
Monuments by the Water
Pause at the Birthplace of Seattle Monument on Alki Beach, which lists the members of the first colony. Erected in 1905 by the Washington University State Historical Society and presented by Lenora Denny, it also pays tribute to the Duwamish people, without whom the first settlers would not have thrived.
Nearby stands a scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, donated in 1952 by Reginald H. Parsons and the Seattle Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, perhaps as a nod to the New York Alki name. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, many people gathered at the statue to mourn.
Alki Point Lighthouse and the Rock Beneath It
Look for the Alki Point Lighthouse, still operating since 1913. It replaced an 1887 post light from the United States Lighthouse Service, which in turn followed a simple lantern on a post that landowner Hans Martin Hanson set up in the mid-1870s.
The grounds are not generally open to the public, though the tower has offered tours on summer weekend afternoons, when you can see the lens up close. Schedules can change, so confirm with the operator before planning your visit around one.
Just inland from the point rises a small hill of about 75 feet, one of the few places in the Seattle area where bedrock reaches the surface. It is a piece of the 23-million-year-old Blakeley Formation, and geologists think it may once have been a sea stack, though it could always have been tied to land by a sandbar.
Parks Beyond the Beach
Alki holds more green space than its beach suggests. Some of it is wild, and some is made for picnics and ball games.
Old-Growth Forest and a Pioneer Homestead
Walk beneath very old trees in Schmitz Park, one of the only old-growth forests in Seattle and a rare stretch of deep woods inside city limits. Down on the western shore, Me-Kwa-Mooks Park spreads across 20.2 acres along Beach Drive SW. This was once the Schmitz family homestead, and its name comes from the Lushootseed word for Alki Point.
Viewpoints Over the Water
Stop at the Charles Richey Sr Viewpoint on Beach Drive SW, a small Seattle Parks and Recreation site with other parks and historic landmarks close by. Up the hill on California Avenue SW, Hamilton Viewpoint Park has looked across Elliott Bay since 1954, with benches and a lawn suited to a picnic. Constellation Park and Marine Reserve and Weather Watch Park add more shoreline stops along the way.
Playgrounds and Ball Fields
Families have two neighborhood options. Alki Playground sits on SW Lander St, within half a mile of the beach and Schmitz Preserve Park, while Bar-S Playground on SW Admiral Way includes the Bar-S baseball field.
Historic Houses and Holdouts
Among the newer condominiums, older homes still hold their ground. The Hanson-Olsen Home dates to the 1860s, and the bungalows along Harbor Avenue show off the Arts and Crafts style that spread through Western cities around the turn of the last century. Many are aging, and their owners face pressure to renovate, relocate or lose them.
Along the beachfront, watch for a pair of holdout houses breaking up the row of condos. Covered in flowers since 1989, they are registered as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. City records also list the Log House Museum building and Fir Lodge, home of the Alki Homestead Restaurant, as local landmarks.
Music and an Evening Up the Hill
Summer concerts have filled Alki Beach since the early 1900s, and the first streetcars to West Seattle were built partly to carry crowds to those shows. In recent years the beach has hosted the Seattle Music Fest in August, three days of emerging Northwest acts alongside touring headliners, so check the festival's official site for current dates.
For more music, catch the Wurlitzer theater organ at Kenyon Hall, or see what the Historic Admiral Theater has on, since it stages live performances from time to time. Then head uphill from the beach to California Avenue SW, West Seattle's main commercial street, where five-and-dime shops and diners feel like a trip back to earlier decades.
