If it’s a sunny day in Seattle, it means that you should be outside enjoying it. Olympic Sculpture Park is a great place to combine enjoyment of art, the city, and the outdoors all in one place.

Walking distance from Pike Place, the Seattle Aquarium, and the Seattle Great Wheel, it’s a location that can easily be combined with more city-centered activities such as eating, shopping, or sightseeing.

Situated right next to the sound, it offers great vistas of the mountains (on a clear day), the ferries going to and fro, and the numerous islands that dot the far side of Elliott Bay.

Located at the southern start of the Elliot Bay Trail, it gives you an option of continuing your walk into more scenic territories if heading back into the city isn’t your thing.

Olympic Sculpture Park was completed in 1997 and provides 9 acres of land criss-crossed by slanting walkways that lead you past numerous large to extremely large sculptures. Many of the paths have chairs set out facing the water in case you need a break, or just want to slow down and take in the views. The park, which was designed by Architecture firm Weiss Manfredi, has won an international design competition, and connects the urban core of Seattle to the revitalized waterfront of Elliott Bay.

Olympic Sculpture Park

FREE Entrance. You can start the zig-zag path from two points: the lower section where Alaskan Way turns into Broad Street, and the point at which Elliott Bay Trail begins, or the upper section at the corner of Western Ave and Broad Street where the large Paccar Pavilion is located.

Opens 30 minutes before sunrise.
Closes 30 minutes after sunset.

For more information about suggested parking, special holiday closures, or group tours, head to the website for the SAM (Seattle Art Museum), of which the Olympic Sculpture Park is part of.