Finale: Ravenna Woods

Location: North Seattle/Ravenna/University District
Address: 4633 Ravenna Ave. N.E.
Acreage: 1.15

On a very cold morning a couple of weeks ago, I set out to visit the last Seattle Parks Department park on my list. Crunching along this path alone in the crisp, sunny weather felt like the perfect way to cap off the official end of this project.

Ravenna Woods is accessible through a dirt and gravel road on a dead end street immediately above the Burke Gilman Trail. Through the leafless trees you can see the runners and bikers just a dozen or so yards away. There isn’t much to do in this park except to walk this road to its end and look up at the small wooded area that makes up the little more than an acre park.

It could have felt anti-climatic, but instead I looked back on all the fun I have had visiting parks all over Seattle and discovering many, many amazing public green spaces.

Now, the truth is that I did not write about every single park held by the Parks Department. I drove or walked to each and crossed a little more than 20 off the list. Most I eliminated because they were a completely inaccessible greenspace not meant to be set foot in. I didn’t want to bushwhack through our natural spaces where there were no paths or entry points. I also crossed off our golf courses and the Woodland Park Zoo because they require an entry fee. And, I felt it wasn’t the right place to write about the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery.

But, that left 393 parks, some large and magnificent and some small and rather uninteresting. It’s been a very fun project.

Although I’ve crossed off every City of Seattle Parks Department park, I still have more cool places to visit, so I will be continuing to blog. I have several Port of Seattle parks left to do and there are dozens of tiny street ends (many on the waterfront) that I will be checking out and sharing with you.

Thanks for following along!

#393 (Visited 11/21/13)