Visit to the Water Tower

Last Sunday was a sunny, clear day so we decided to visit the Water Tower at Volunteer Park (Seattle, WA).  Yes, we know that sounds funny for something to do on a nice day, but read on .... The easiest way to show you what this place looks like is to show a view of it on a vintage postcard (on display inside the tower).

It's a big, circular brick building with an observation deck at the top. Since it's built on one of the higher spots in Seattle you can get some nice views from the windows. First you'll have to climb 106 steps to get up there. (The picture below, looking down the stairs, is one John took while taking a breather about half way up. While we were at the top some kids ran up and claimed to have done it in 58 seconds ... ahhhh yes, youth!)

Then, when you get to the top, you'll have to wedge your camera into some of the pretty small openings of the screens that cover the windows.

In John's opinion, it's worth all the effort to get some nice views like the ones below .... starting with the Space Needle, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. (This view is looking mostly to the west.)

Downtown ... (mostly southwest)

In this enlargement, we're looking over the St Joseph Parish church bell tower and in the distance are homes on the slopes of Bellevue, Washington.  Down below that is Lake Washington. In the far distance, the Cascade Mountains. (mostly looking east)

The view of Mt Rainier (mostly looking southeast) is pretty awesome. Sorry for the trees in the way, but there isn't anything John can do about that. Well, maybe he could use Photoshop and get rid of them ... but then .... 

Some of the views are just trees anyway.  But still, nice ...

Back down the stairs and outside we snapped a photo of the tower which was constructed in 1906 with some interesting brick work.  Now-a-days the tower is surrounded by tall trees that keep us from getting an overall view and so the reason for using the postcard view at the start.

Thanks for stopping by the Island and visiting the Volunteer Park Water Tower with us.