Alki Trail

Wrapping around West Seattle's Duwamish Head, the Alki Multi-Use Trail boasts some of the best views in the Emerald City. On the east side from Seacrest Park, views expand east across Elliott Bay toward the Seattle skyline and the Cascade Range and north toward Queen Anne and Magnolia. On the western stretch, views extend across the Puget Sound to the always stunning Olympic Mountains. Along the entire 1.9-mile stretch from Seacrest Park to Alki Beach, this broad, multi-purpose paved pathway provides opportunities to stop, rest on one of many park benches, and soak up the best of what Seattle has to offer. In total, the Alki Multi-Use Trail is 4 miles long, starting in the southeast under the West Seattle Bridge adjacent to the Nucor Steel plant, turning around Duwamish Point, and making its way southwest to Alki Point. The Alki Point Lighthouse stands at the end of the trail, a 37-foot tall mariners navigation beacon built in 1913 that is still in use today. Because it is still operated and managed by the U.S. Coast Guard, the lighthouse is only open to the public on weekends from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. during the summer months. Duwamish Head and Luna Park Not only is the Alki Peninsula the site of the first European settlers, Duwamish Head is the site of what was up until 1931 an amusement park called Luna Park. According to the City: Chas. Looff built an elaborate amusement park on pilings at Duwamish Head (you can still see the pilings at low tide!), and called it Luna Park after its Coney Island, NY namesake. The park, completed in 1907, included the "Powers Natatorium and Bathhouse" with several heated saltwater pools, a huge German carousel, a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a restaurant, and a boat chute into a "tub" of water. Its demise came when a fire burned down the park.