Lowman Beach Park

Amenities

Images

Lowman Beach Park beach - Photo by TIA International Photography

Lowman Beach Park benches - Photo by TIA International Photography

Lowman Beach Park play area - Photo by TIA International Photography

Lowman Beach Park tennis courts - Photo by TIA International Photography

About

Lowman Beach Park is a beautiful shoreline park with rocks and driftwood. The park offers a large lawn space for gathering, swings and a wonderful location to take in sunsets with a view of the Olympics, Alki Point, and Williams Point. The entire shoreline is available for hand carry boat launching and landing. The final portion of the seawall and the tennis court at Lowman Beach Park was removed in 2022, the beach was restored, and a remnant of Pelly Creek was daylighted. Before there was a sawmill and then a park, the local Indigenous peoples called the area around the park gwalali, meaning Capsize-Place.

T. T. Waterman (Thomas Talbot Waterman, 1885-1936), a U.S. anthropologist, was here in the Pacific NW around 1917-1918 recording/cataloguing indigenous place names. For Lowman Beach, he wrote down “GwEl” which means “Capsize/turn-over.” More recently, Professor Coll Thrush in Native Seattle, Histories from the Crossing-Over Place updated the spelling this area to g^wel based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which all tribes use for the Lushootseed language. Today, “capsize/turn-over” would be g^wal, while -ali means “place” - so it’s g^walali or shortened to g^wali for “Capsize-Place”. The name may have been a warning about the offshore potential for the tipping of a canoe.

Boat Launch Fees and Payments

We have 7 motorized boat ramps on Puget Sound, Lake Washington, and the Ship Canal.

Tie-ups are limited to 15 minutes at motorized boat ramps.

Launch permits are required at the 5 motorized boat launches on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, regardless of where you park your vehicle and trailer:

Atlantic City (Rainier Beach),
Don Armeni (Alki),
Eddie Vine (Shilshole),
Magnuson Park (Sand Point),
Stan Sayres (Mount Baker).

Day Use Permits ($12)

Day use permits are $12 per day, sold on the PayByPhone app. Maximum stay 4 days. The Washington State Parks Discover Pass is not valid at boat ramps in Seattle.

Annual Boat Launch Permits ($150)

Annual Boat Launch Permits are good from January 1-December 31. You may purchase an annual permit 4 ways:

PREFERRED: Purchase an Annual Boat Ramp Permit on ActiveNet
Call (206) 684-7249
Download the Annual Boat Ramp Permit Application, print, and return with a $150.00 check or money order payable to Seattle Parks and Recreation. Please allow 2 weeks for processing.
Purchase an Annual Boat Ramp Permit in-person at Evans Pool, Meadowbrook Pool, Rainier Beach Pool, or Southwest Pool.

Launch Permits are not required at:

The boat ramps on the Ship Canal which have little to no parking:

Hand Carry Boat Launches (see map and list below).

However, hand carry users must pay launch fees at motorized boat ramps on Lake Washington and Puget Sound.

Click or tap to open a new window with an interactive GIS map of Motorized Boat Ramps and Hand Carry Boat Launches

For an alphabetical text list of Boat Ramps, Hand Carry Boat Launches, and Tie-Up Spaces, see the Shoreline Access List.