Cal Anderson Park | Wild Camping

United States

Details

Verified:
5 months ago
Altitude:
0.0 masl
Website:
Contributor:
cadillac_demille

Amenities

Electricity:
No
Wifi:
No
Kitchen:
No
Restaurant:
Yes
Showers:
No
Water:
No
Toilets:
No
Big Rig Friendly:
No
Tent Friendly:
No
Pet Friendly:
Yes

Something not right?

Description

We rolled into Capitol Hill, Seattle thinking that it would be easy to poach a spot on the street, only to find that the streets were all over crowded with bumper to bumper parking. We did find the Gold mine though - Cal Anderson Park, just off of Broadway and Pike Street - One of the places where Grunge Rock started. Cal Anderson park was nominated for some kind of "wholesome award" and was indeed a fantastic place to park for the night (in small Camper Van style -Not a place for big rigs). The pay parking ends at 20:00 and then it is free until 08:00 weekdays and weekends. It is located right beside the park itself which has a well lit Soccer field (lights out around 23:00), Tennis courts, basketball, a walking area, and is well used by Seattle-ites. There are some fantastic pubs like The Unicorn, or Nuemo's (Nirvana played there) a couple blocks away on Pike Street. The parking spots are Back in- Horizontal spots, so again- No Big rigs (Sorry).

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Stayed one night here. Parked on the Saturday night and paid for the remaining hours (till 8pm I think). A bit of noise from people walking past but not bad. Felt safe and had a good nights sleep. On the Sunday didn’t have to pay!

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I’m posting for clarification because the information isn’t clear. This is a paid street parking adjacent to the park between the hours of 8am-10pm daily. Seems like a nice enough area but very busy. Got here around 7pm so I guess I’ll fork over the $10.50 for the next 3 hrs. Thought it might be a little more secluded. Next time I’ll look for something free that’s just as busy.

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Solid place to stay for a night. Street lights along the parking areas and semi busy street made it feel safe to park over night. Pay parking starts at 8am, otherwise free over night. We parked (backed) our 18ft long renovated bus with no issues. Sweet spot in Capital Hill near lots of coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Would stay again.

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Been here since 8:15 pm right after free parking started. The spots filled up around 9:30pm and it's a Thursday night. The curbside is dipped down and there's a lot of people around so I am going to sleep in the driver's seat of my suv instead of the bed in the back just in case. Doesn't seem like a good idea to put my reflectix in the windows either. Trying to make it work for a non van vehicle with windows to see in. Someone broke the window of an suv a few spots down from me looking to steal something around midnight.

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Stayed two nights here in the reverse angle parks. Left our converted van there all day with no issues. Free parking Sunday’s and holidays with no time restrictions, otherwise pay parking 8am-10pm with a 4hr max stay from 8am-5pm. Quite noisy being a park, and a few homeless people living there. Fine for a night or two. Bathrooms were all out of order or locked when we were there, but might have been like that for 4th of July.

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Nice area. We managed to squeeze our 19 feet long and 9 feet high camper into one of the back-in parking stalls. But you need to pay from 8am until 10pm now. 4h max. until 5pm. After that no time limit. The horizontal ones are 2 hour parking limited from 7am - 6pm. We spoke to an officer who was handing out tickets. He told us that the area is quite safe. Station is only two blocks away. After walking around we saw two stalls with broken glass though and some homeless people hanging around. We left the van for about three hours in the evening. Was as we left it when we came back. The officer also told us that it's fine to sleep in our van here. So, totally legal but noisy.

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Good to park overnight if you want to go to some bar in the area. Bit noisy, -I was there on a Saturday-, lot of cars and people, someone even knock on our door a few times...no idea why. Not quiet, but nice location for a night out in Seattle.

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It seemed like a good spot to overnight, but we did not stay. We have a 21ft long truck camper and were not very confortable here, even if we could fit in the parking spots, they were not very leveled.

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Stayed here while in Seattle for the Blue Jays game. Arrived around 4pm with plenty of parking (reverse angle parking) It’s very populated, i didn’t feel like my vehicle was is any kind of danger. The only thing i will mention is that all the parking fills up around 10pm on weekends due to close proximity to some clubs. There’s a few fun bars in the area, i recommend the unicorn, it’s got a carnival theme and it’s super fun.

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Good spot, as described by others. There's two type of parking in the area - immediately adjacent to the park are diagonal spots that you must back in to (if you pull in front-ways, you'll get a ticket). These spots are 4hr pay limits 8am-10pm (minus sunday). Parralel parking spots on surrounding streets are mostly free, 2hr limits (7am-6pm, minus sunday).

We stayed in a diagonal spot Saturday night through Monday morning with no issues. It's a city, so it can be loud, although there are minimal sirens. Recommend a pair of earplugs.

There are public bathrooms, but they close before the other park facilities do. We tried to use them at 1030pm and they were locked.

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I stayed here and the it’s still available for overnight camping. Previous descriptions are accurate. Active, loud, and a regular flow of Seattle’s locals. Park toilets are filthy and appeared to be unusable. Sunday there is no fee for parking. Great bar and restaurant scene.

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Good location in walking distance from city center. Nice bars and restaurants around. Fairly quiet at night. There are public washrooms in the park but they were really dirty. Parking is free from 10pm-8am, however it is $3/h in the afternoon, so we ended up paying $15 for parking from 5pm-10pm.

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stayed here one night. quite noisy but free - just make sure you leave before 8am when the parking restrictions kick back in

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We parked there for the night with our van. Well located.

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Nice place not too far to city center. there is toilet and drinking water.
Little too loud on the weekend night.

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When we first arrived in our Dodge Camper Van, we were lucky enough to chat with a Police officer whom I confirmed with that we could not only park overnight, but also sleep inside. The Best sites may be to the NE corner of the park where there is less traffic from Pike Street (Which yes does draw some colorful characters). We thought it was rad as the money we saved on sleeping somewhere, we were able to spend in one of the many Cool pubs in the area. The Unicorn was definitely the more (literally) colorful pubs, but Neumo's has live music every night. A Trader Joe's up the hill as well.

Report Check-In

We rolled into Capitol Hill, Seattle thinking that it would be easy to poach a spot on the street, only to find that the streets were all over crowded with bumper to bumper parking. We did find the Gold mine though - Cal Anderson Park, just off of Broadway and Pike Street - One of the places where Grunge Rock started. Cal Anderson park was nominated for some kind of "wholesome award" and was indeed a fantastic place to park for the night (in small Camper Van style -Not a place for big rigs). The pay parking ends at 20:00 and then it is free until 08:00 weekdays and weekends. It is located right beside the park itself which has a well lit Soccer field (lights out around 23:00), Tennis courts, basketball, a walking area, and is well used by Seattle-ites. There are some fantastic pubs like The Unicorn, or Nuemo's (Nirvana played there) a couple blocks away on Pike Street. The parking spots are Back in- Horizontal spots, so again- No Big rigs (Sorry).

Report Check-In

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