Waterfront Park reached its last big milestone on July 25, 2025, when Pier 58 opened. It added nearly 50,000 square feet of public space between Union and Pike streets, next to the Seattle Aquarium. The city held a grand opening for the full 20-acre park that September. That makes October 2026 the start of the park's first full fall and winter with no construction fencing, after years when many locals simply stayed away.
Many of the park's own names and art point back to the shoreline that used to be here. The Bluff Walk, the Salish Steps and the street signed Dzidzilalich all refer to the bluffs, the beach and the Coast Salish history underneath the new promenade. This fall, Friends of Waterfront Park is running two free walking tours that explain that history. The park and the tours work best together.
The ground under the promenade used to be somewhere else
Naturalist David B. Williams leads a 1.5-mile walk called "Secrets of Seattle's Historic Shoreline." The listing from Friends of Waterfront Park describes it this way:
"explore the last vestiges of the former downtown bluffs, trace the lost island of Seattle, and examine how the subterranean fill still affects the modern landscape."
The tour starts at the corner of Dzidzilalich, which is Alaskan Way, and Lenora Street, and ends at Occidental Park. The rest of 2026 has two dates: Tuesday, October 6 and Tuesday, November 3, both from 10 a.m. to noon. Tickets are free but limited, and they're released on Eventbrite two weeks before each walk. So the October 6 tickets are already out, and the November 3 tickets should go up around October 20. The tour is labeled family-friendly for ages 4 and up, and it's entirely outdoors.
The second tour covers the human history. Historian Jennifer Ott leads "Uncovering the History of Seattle's Central Waterfront" on Thursday, October 22, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. It's a free one-mile walk starting at 80 S. Main St. The description covers piers and the people who worked them, ships and railroads, and the beach where Coast Salish canoes once landed.
Even without a tour, the city's interpretive signs along the park cover the original shoreline, native plants, waterfront workers and how the waterfront was used for transportation. The city dates the start of seawall construction to 1911. The edge you walk along today is over a century of engineering stacked on what used to be beach.
The names and the art say the same thing
Once you know what was here before, the park's design reads like a set of labels.
Overlook Walk climbs from the waterfront up to Pike Place Market, with winding paths and cascading steps between the two. Its playground is called the Bluff Walk, with climbing pieces, ropes and slides set among rocks and trees. The wide stairway down is the Salish Steps, which doubles as a lit amphitheater with accessible seating. The Williams tour is about the bluffs the city cut back, and the park's elevated walkway climbs the same grade.
Across the Park Promenade from Pier 58 stand three welcome figures called Family, credited to Qwalsius, Shaun Peterson. On Pier 62, Taylor Cameron's Currents of Connection runs across three shipping containers and honors Coast Salish history and tradition. Beneath Overlook Walk, Ann Hamilton's Guests puts large puppet-like figures in a half-hidden, cave-like space. You can see it from the underpass at Salish Plaza.
There's also a piece of the old waterfront at Pier 58's southeast corner. The bronze Waterfront Fountain, designed by James H. FitzGerald and finished by Margaret Tomkins, has been restored and sits there now.
One route, north to south, for a gray afternoon
This route works with or without a tour ticket.
- Start at Alaskan Way and Lenora Street, where the Williams tour begins.
- Stop at Pier 62 to see the Currents of Connection containers. The 10-foot wood-burning firepit is there too, designed by Berger Partnership.
- Climb Overlook Walk by the Salish Steps. The city says the top has 360-degree views of Elliott Bay, downtown, Lumen Field, T-Mobile Park, the Olympics and Mount Rainier.
- Warm up at Boon Boona Coffee's Overlook Walk Café at 1515 Western Ave. It opened February 7, 2026, as the company's fifth café, and it's open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
- Go up to the Ocean Pavilion rooftop, which has benches, native-plant beds and, on clear days, views of the Olympics and Rainier.
- Walk down to Pier 58, open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. It has turf, a shaded grove with six kinds of trees, and a playground built around a 25-foot jellyfish sculpture with net climbing, kelp-like posts and an accessible slide platform.
- End at Molly Moon's in the Washington Street Boat Landing Pergola at 199 Alaskan Way. It opened May 23, 2025.
What's on the fall calendar
The Friends of Waterfront Park events page lists programs through mid-November. Here's what's left on it for 2026.
| Date | Event | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun., Oct. 4 and Sun., Oct. 11, 10 a.m. | Railroad Way Game Day Activations | Railroad Way | 21+ |
| Tue., Oct. 6, 10 a.m. to noon | Secrets of Seattle's Historic Shoreline Walking Tour | Alaskan Way and Lenora St. | Free, limited tickets |
| Sat., Oct. 10, 9 a.m. | Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk | Pier 62 | |
| Mon., Oct. 12, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Pier 58 | Free |
| Thu., Oct. 22, 5:30 to 7 p.m. | Uncovering the History of Seattle's Central Waterfront | 80 S. Main St. | Free, limited tickets |
| Sat., Oct. 31, 6 to 11 p.m. | Spooky Salsa & Boo-Chata | Pier 66, 2225 Alaskan Way | Free |
| Tue., Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to noon | Secrets of Seattle's Historic Shoreline Walking Tour | Alaskan Way and Lenora St. | Free, limited tickets |
| Fri., Nov. 13, 5:30 p.m. | Dinner with Friends | Seattle Marriott Waterfront, 2100 Alaskan Way | Ticketed, 21+ |
Indigenous Peoples' Day at Pier 58 and the Ott tour ten days later fit closely with Family, Currents of Connection and the Salish Steps. All three are a few minutes' walk from where those events happen.
What the calendar doesn't show yet
Some of the park's winter season hasn't been announced.
Firepit Socials. Friends of Waterfront Park runs these as casual weekend gatherings around the Pier 62 firepit during the Pacific Northwest's "big dark" months, weather permitting. The program page currently thanks visitors for "a great 2026 firepit social season" and doesn't list dates for this winter.
A holiday market. Friends planned a Pier 62 holiday market with Northwest Marketplaces for November 29 and 30, 2025, but canceled it. As of early October, there's no 2026 holiday market on the calendar.
Urban Family Waterfront. The Ballard brewery is opening a second location at 1022 Alaskan Way, across from Ivar's Fish Bar and Ivar's Acres of Clams. The plan is beer, cocktails, local wines, coffee and grandma-style pan pizzas from Pizza by Chris n Sandra. Washington Beer Blog reported in August that the brewery was hiring and close to announcing an opening date. The brewery's own page still says the location will open in 2026.
syiq̓ibs ʔə kayəʔ (Kaya's Basket). This woven-basket sculpture by MTK Matriarchs, the artists Malynn Foster, Tamela LaClair and Kimberly Deriana, is planned for the lower Salish Steps. The city's construction-updates page now expects installation in winter 2027, and Friends lists it under "Art Coming Soon!" It's the last piece of art planned for Waterfront Park. When it arrives, it will sit on the steps named for the people whose shoreline this was.
If the fall tours get you curious about the ground under downtown, Zac Lee can help you look into the history and recent sales of a specific condo or building near the waterfront. Start with a free home valuation from Zac Lee and get a clear, data-backed read on what a home near Dzidzilalich is worth right now.
