Magnolia wha..? Who's ever heard of it. Google it and you'll find nearly nothing.
I've been walking around Magnolia the last few days, I was wondering where the private property ends and public begins on the beach. I went to the assessors office website and looked at the plat map. I noticed the words "Magnolia Tidelands Park", quickly searched the web and found one sentence at the city's official site, seattle.gov.
"This park comprises the tidelands area below Magnolia Bluff." It also says it is from "W Ruffner to Elliott Bay Marina", and hours are 4AM to 11:30 PM. The only other info I could find was that it covered 174 acres.
Tideland is defined as land that is regularly under water with normal ebb and flow, submerged at high tide. A resident of the waterfront told me last year that the line was usually the bulkhead.
This is a long stretch of beach, when you add next door Discovery Park you can make some great loops. I went from the Ballard Locks all the way around the bottom, but a nice shorter one might involve heading up through Discovery Park and along Magnolia Boulevard at the top of the Bluff.
There are also 2 other public access points along the way, one on Perkins Lane. The beach should take less than 2 hours one way, check the tide table to be sure it will be below about +4 feet or less for your walk. Best to start when it is going out.
This could be nearly as popular for walkers as Golden Gardens or Green Lake, Alki, Discovery Park if more people knew about it. Easy enough to do in the dark because the lowest tides are at night this time of year, I never even got out my headlamp. And a totally different experience during the day. Enjoy!
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