Discovery Park

Author's Comments

Discovery Park is unusual in that it does not feel like a city park at all. You enter through a quiet residential edge of Magnolia and within ten minutes you are walking through madrona and fir on a bluff above Puget Sound, with the Olympics across the water and almost no evidence of Seattle behind you. That is the trick of the place. It is large enough and varied enough to absorb whatever you bring to it. I tend to skip the direct route to the lighthouse. The South Beach trail gets the attention, and the West Point Lighthouse itself is a fine subject in late summer when the grasses on the bluff go brown and the white tower catches the last warm light off the water. But the North Beach trail is where I keep returning. It is quieter, the driftwood is more interesting, and the cliffs there have a particular way of holding shadow into the late afternoon while the water out beyond stays bright. You get a sense of edge that is rare this close to a city. September is my favorite month here. The summer haze has thinned, the Olympics start to show their snow again, and golden hour stretches long enough that you can work the meadow, then the bluff, then the beach in a single evening without rushing. The climb back up from the water is steep enough to remember. Bring water and bring time. This is not a place to photograph quickly.

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