Green Lake Park is one of Seattle’s most visited multi-use green & water spaces. When we think about Seattle’s history, we often think about the history in terms of human history, but so much happened before we did. As we walk this area on the Latona side of Green Lake and catch glimpses across the way at the Phinney Ridge side, take a moment to contemplate how this amazingness this all happened.
We could go back a million, or a billion years ago, when the region was a bubbling party of magma and volcanic explosion, followed by tectonic dancing and all sorts of exciting stuff. All that was followed by the Ice Ages which began 2.4 million years ago and lasted until 11,500 years ago. During that time, about 50,000 years ago, the Green Lake basin was dug by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington, Lake Union, Bitter Lake and Haller Lake.
Roughly 15,000-17,000 years ago, this region was covered by 3,000 feet of the Puget Lobe, a portion of of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the western sibling to the Laurentide Ice Sheet, that once covered most of Canada and some of the northern USA. This was roughly about the time the Missoula Ice Dam burst, flowing 500 cubic miles of water - more water than Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined – all the way out to what we now call the Pacific Ocean, carving out the features of Eastern Washington and the Columbia Gorge, and so forth.
That's a lot of ice!!!
But I digress, let’s focus on Green Lake.
At the end of the last Ice Age, Green Lake was a geological remnant of glacial Lake Russell, a giant lake formed when melt-water from glaciers on what is now Seattle cut drainage ravines through new glacial deposits. Lake Russell disappeared when the Ice Sheet retreated, but various features remained, including the Green Lake drainage basin, which for thousands of years emptied through the Ravenna ravine into Lake Washington.
Seattle's dramatic Ice Age history, with Green Lake before it was Green Lake
The glaciers around Seattle are long gone, and the interconnectedness of the various water supplies severed. Green Lake is now roughly 30 feet deep and is now largely fed by rainfall, storm runoff (be mindful of what we leave on the ground), and Seattle's municipal water supply. The lake is also stocked with Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, and Channel Catfish for the more patient anglers. While Green Lake certainly had natural beginnings it’s current state is largely created and managed by humans.
Lucky us, we get to be here when Green Lake is a beautiful and relaivelty peaceful green space sporting various wildlife species, some marine life, and multi-use trails we can share to experience it all. Green Lake also provides a swimming beach in the summer, rowing opportunities, and paddle boarding. I wager this place was less interesting waaaay back in the day; for one thing no coffee shops or pubs.
Green Lake during a lovely sunset, with rowers enjoying the practice (year 2022)
Lots of interesting geology around here. I am by no means a geologist of any kind, just curious, and additional knowledge is readily available to explore in libraries, on the internet, and in several area museums. If you have nuggest of information on Green Lake's ancient history please do share in your log.
And now for the geocache, which is really why you came here…
If you followed the coordinates correctly then you’re in a public alley surrounded by tall fences and other alley artifacts. You don’t need to poke around fences, and please do not dig in the trash cans, it's unseemingly behavior, and allso the container won't be found in, on, or under any of those.
Use your geosenses for this urban cache.
While the area is packed full of geocachers and geocaching supporters, including supporitive neighbors, please be mindful of the hours of geolurking (yes, I just made up that term, humor me and roll with it) and please don't ask the neighbors for help if you get stuck - message me instead.
As part of the Seattle’s Quirky History series, there are no two containers that are alike. Enjoy!
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(FTF Malaika54)