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Beach Week | Have you heard about Seattle’s hidden shoreline beaches and outdoor spaces?

Make sure to stay cool over the weekend. If you’re going to travel anywhere, hydrate and stay in the shade when possible. Take a look at the National Weather Service Seattle’s cooling locations across King County. Stay safe!

Summer is here! To celebrate, we’re letting you in on a little known secret: Seattle has mini hidden beaches and outdoor spaces that are open to the public!

Yesterday we shared our top hidden beaches that you should check out, and today we’re sharing hidden outdoor spaces to visit. 

Our Shoreline Street Ends program manages about 140 mini waterfront parks, many of which provide public access to our waterways. Learn more about the program and how these mini beaches and outdoor spaces came to be in yesterday’s blog.  

In 2020, we rolled out an interactive map showing the locations of all the street end beaches and outdoor spaces. 

Many of the street ends have access to the water, while others have scenic overlooks, and some are still underdeveloped. The sites on the map marked in green are worth a visit! Others, marked in red, are still undeveloped. As funding allows, we hope to improve access at more locations. 


7 street end outdoor spaces you should explore this summer! 

Since most of these outdoor spaces don’t have addresses, we’ve listed the closest adjacent street intersection and the SSE (Shoreline Street End) number so you can find it on our interactive Shoreline Street End map.  

The public access area at these sites are typically only as wide as the street and sidewalk it is named for.  The beaches and areas adjacent to our sites are typically privately owned unless they are next to a public park. Please keep this in mind when visiting these sites so that you don’t accidentally trespass on to private property. Please be respectful of neighbors. 

S Warsaw St Shoreline Street End Credit: SDOT 

S Warsaw St | SSE-47

This street end nature area abuts the northern edge of Martha Washington Park. The Green Seattle Partnership restored this once overgrown site over three years starting in 2017. The site doesn’t have any defined trails so if you choose to visit this site, please view the area from the top of the hill or tread carefully as to not step on the maturing plantings. We’re looking for volunteers to help us to care for this area, contact us to learn how you can help. [Warsaw St and 57th Ave S] 


E Prospect Shoreline Street End Volunteers  Credit SDOT 

E Prospect St | SSE-65

In 2019, a former Madison Park resident set his sights on transforming the overgrown E Prospect St street end into an outdoor space that Seattle residents could enjoy. The space was created with the help of volunteers, Seattle Tennis Club staff, and SDOT. Over two years, volunteers installed 600 native shrubs and 37 trees on the site. [E Prospect St and 41st Ave E]


Beaver Lodge Sanctuary Credit: Brandon Macz of the Madison Park Times 

37th Ave W (Beaver Lodge Sanctuary) | SSE-68

Known to the locals as Beaver Lodge Sanctuary, this site is forested with a gravel path leading to a lookout with a bench and dock. Lots of wildlife can been seen from this street end. [37th Ave W and E McGilvra St] 


W McGraw St Shoreline Street End  Credit: SDOT 

W McGraw St | SSE-109

A gravel path leads down a steep slope though new native plantings and mature madrone trees to a picnic table and bench with great views of the Puget Sound. A rough asphalt ramp leads down to water’s edge parallel to the shore. [W McGraw St and Perkins Lane W]  


S Willow St Shoreline Street End Credit: SDOT 

S Willow St | SSE-45

A narrow pathway guides visitors through newly installed native vegetation and down to two benches under the canopy of black locust trees. Stone steps lead to a small gravel beach. [S Willow St and 56th Ave S] 

Volunteers have been working for over 25 years to remove encroachments and keep aggressive weeds at bay. In the fall of 2020, we helped our volunteers by sending in our Urban Forestry crews to remove non-native trees and shrubs and install native ones in their place.  


34th Ave NW (Salmon Bay Nature Area) | SSE-146

This street end features a boat-inspired overlook with a view of the ship canal and railroad bridge. The prominent art piece called A Salish Welcome was created by Artist Marvin Oliver. 

The street end is part of the larger Salmon Bay Nature Area. The protected shoreline and uplands provide a rare opportunity to enhance the degraded estuary of the greater Lake Washington watershed, a critical environment in the life cycle of threatened Puget Sound salmon. Seattle Public Utilities and volunteers with Ground Swell Northwest maintain this site. [34th Ave NW and NW 54th St] 


Would you like to volunteer or become a steward at one of these outdoor spaces?  

We invite you to help care for these valuable beaches and outdoor spaces! Volunteers remove invasive plants, plant new native trees and understory plants, and occasionally help us open new public shore access sites.

We collaborate with our partners Friends of Street Ends, Trees for Seattle, and the Green Seattle Partnership to educate and support our volunteers. If you want to volunteer just one afternoon or steward a site for years, we would love to hear from you. Contact Omar Akkari SDOT’s Shoreline Street Ends Program Coordinator to learn more.