Golden Gardens Park

Golden Gardens Park
A freshwater marsh near the north end of the park, with Puget Sound in the background.
Location	Seattle, Washington
Coordinates	47°41′33″N 122°24′12″W / 47.692379°N 122.403359°W / 47.692379; -122.403359Coordinates: 47°41′33″N 122°24′12″W / 47.692379°N 122.403359°W / 47.692379; -122.403359
Area	87.8 acres (35.5 ha)
Operated by	Seattle Parks and Recreation
Open	6 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. daily

Golden Gardens Park is a public park in Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. The park includes wetlands, beaches, hiking trails, and picnic and playground areas. The park is bisected by the BNSF Scenic Subdivision railway line. The park's bathhouse was designated a historic landmark by the City of Seattle in 2005.^[1]

Recreation

The lower portion of the park is divided between wetland marsh and beach (on Puget Sound), and situated north of the Shilshole Bay Marina. It also has dunes and large grassy areas. Golden Gardens has exceptional views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains across the sound.

The water is very cold for swimming even in summers. Sailing, kayaking, and canoeing are popular. Kitesurfing and sailboarding and other wind-driven sports are also common. The Sound is cut off from the open ocean for more than a hundred miles, sheltering the park from severe weather.

The park is also host to fire pits, picnic areas, a play area, a basketball court, and walking and hiking paths.^[2]

Golden Gardens is well known for the birds that live or migrate there:

Mallard ducks in the wetlands
Red-winged blackbirds in the marshes
Canada geese are seen in the parking lot and near picnic areas
Wood ducks make occasional appearances
Eagles occasionally fish here
Seagulls are common
Anna's Hummingbirds can often be seen on the trees near the ponds.

The mallards and Canada geese are habituated to humans, and have been known to attack visitors. Sea lions are often heard, and occasionally seen lounging near the marina breakwater. Red-Eared Slider turtles can be seen sunning themselves on the logs in the ponds. Beavers are active at the ponds, they have cut down a lot of the alder trees around the ponds. Musk Rats can often be seen swimming in the ponds. Orcas sometimes swim near the beach.

References

↑ "Landmarks Alphabetical Listing for G". Individual Landmarks. Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
↑ "Seattle Parks and Recreation". www.seattle.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-19.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Golden Gardens Park.

Seattle Parks and Recreation website

Protected Areas of Seattle

Federal

National Parks	Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Wing Luke Museum (affiliated)

City parks and
preserves

Greater than 50 acres (20 ha)	Alki Beach Camp Long Carkeek Discovery Genesee Golden Gardens Green Lake Interlaken Jackson Jefferson Lake Washington Boulevard Lincoln Magnolia Tidelands Magnuson Puget Schmitz Seattle Center Seward Westcrest West Seattle Golf Course Woodland

10–50 acres (4.0–20.2 ha)	Brighton Playfield Cheasty Boulevard South Colman Condon Way Centerstrip Dahl Playfield Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook Fauntleroy Frink Garfield Gas Works Hamilton Viewpoint Herring's House Park (Tualtwx) Hiawatha Interbay Golf Kinnear Lakeridge Lawton Leschi Longfellow Creek Madrona Magnolia Magnolia Playfield Maple Leaf Reservoir Maple Wood Playfield Matthews Beach Meadowbrook Playfield Me-Kwa-Mooks Montlake Playfield Mount Baker Northacres Open Water Park Pigeon Point Pritchard Island Beach Queen Anne Boulevard Ravenna Park Riverview Playfield Roxhill Sam Smith Soundview Playfield Stan Sayres Memorial Volunteer Walt Hundley Playfield West Seattle Stadium

0.02–10 acres (0.0081–4.0469 ha)	Alvin Larkins Beer Sheva Bell Street Bryant Playground Cal Anderson Cascade Playground Cowen City Hall Commodore Denny Denny-Blaine East Montlake Fairview Freeway Fremont Peak Hing Hay Home of the Good Shepherd I-5 Colonnade Jack Block Jimi Hendrix Kerry Kiwanis Ravine Kobe Terrace Lake People Lake Union Lakeview Louisa Boren Madison Marshall Park McCurdy Meridian Playground Myrtle Edwards Nora's Woods North Passage Point Northacres Occidental Olympic Sculpture Park Oxbow Parsons Gardens Peace Rizal Roanoke Schmitz Boulevard South Passage Point Terry Pettus Park Tilikum Place Union Bay Natural Area Victor Steinbrueck Viretta Waterfront West Montlake Westlake

Under 0.02 acres (0.0081 ha)	Boylston Place Lakeview Place McGraw Square Westlake Square

Other

Farms, gardens and P-Patches	Beacon Food Forest Danny Woo International District Community Garden Interbay P-Patch Marra Farm Picardo Farm

Green belts	St. Mark's Greenbelt SW Queen Anne Greenbelt The Jungle West Duwamish Greenbelt

Zoos and aquariums	Seattle Aquarium Woodland Park Zoo

Arboretums and botanical gardens	Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Gardens Kubota Garden Piper Orchard Seattle Chinese Garden Seattle Japanese Garden South Seattle Community College Arboretum Volunteer Park Conservatory Washington Park Arboretum

Landscape architecture	Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition Olmsted parks

Bicycle trails	Burke-Gilman Trail Chief Sealth Trail

Seattle Parks and Recreation • List of parks in Seattle

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.