Washington is the only state in America where a nude beach has been tested in court and won. In July 2026, a King County Superior Court judge issued a final ruling denying the permanent closure of Denny Blaine Park, confirming that non-sexual public nudity at the beach is lawful, and requiring the city to maintain vegetation screens, staff park monitors, and keep a clothing-required upper zone for objectors. That outcome is the product of a century of habit and two years of civic struggle, and it makes Seattle the most legally settled nude shoreline in the country.
Denny Blaine: The Century-Long Beach
Developers Elbert F. Blaine and Charles L. Denny gifted the park to the city in 1901. Once the Lake Washington trolley lines opened, University of Washington students and swimmers began bathing clothing-free along the secluded shore. By the late 1960s the beach had become Seattle’s queer coastal sanctuary, earning the nickname “Dykiki,” and in June 2015 it served as the city’s impromptu gathering place when the Supreme Court decided Obergefell. Beachgoers still describe it as “the sanctuary we ran to when marriage equality became the law of the land.”
The modern fight began in late 2023, when Seattle Parks proposed building a children’s playground on the site with a million-dollar private gift. More than ten thousand signatures forced the city to abandon the plan in early 2024, and that September the City Council passed a resolution formally recognizing Denny Blaine as a site of historic and cultural importance to the city’s LGBTQ+ community. A homeowner group, Denny Blaine Park for All, then filed a public nuisance suit demanding a nudity ban. Judge Samuel Chung’s interim order split the park into clothing-required upper ground and clothing-optional waterfront, and in May 2026 he clarified that female toplessness is protected even in the clothing-required zone. The final ruling in July settled the matter: the beach stays, with screens and monitors as the compromise. Friends of Denny Blaine, the queer-led coalition that intervened as a formal third party, has raised $3.3 million for restoration and stewardship.
Access is by the E. Denny Blaine Street stairway, a steep concrete descent from Lake Washington Boulevard, and the beach hosts drag performances, “Dykiki Drag Story Hour,” and solstice skinny-dips. Enforcement targets lewd conduct, public sex, and open alcohol, not nudity itself.
The Rest of the Seattle Shore
Howell Park, three blocks north at E. Howell Street, is a small quiet pocket beach where discrete clothing-optional and topless sunbathing has long been tolerated. It has no restrooms and no formal amenities. Gas Works Park’s Kite Hill on Lake Union is clothing-required on ordinary days but hosts the painted-cyclist finish of the Fremont Solstice Parade and, during Solstice weekend and heat waves, widespread accepted body-painted sunbathing. Madrona and Genesee, the 1970s nude pockets, are now textile for full nudity as development and patrols pushed bathers north, though topfree sunbathing remains common and legal.
Wild Water Beyond Seattle
Baker Hot Springs in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is the state’s most reliable wild thermal tradition: rustic rock-and-log pools at 100 to 104 degrees, reached by Forest Service Road 1144 (badly rutted, high-clearance 4WD strongly advised) and a 0.6-mile trail. It sits on Forest Service land, not allotment land, and is voluntary-maintained by pack-in, pack-out soakers. Nason Creek and the upper Chiwawa have a local history of discreet river sunbathing, while Lake Wenatchee State Park itself is strictly textile. Sol Duc requires suits, and Olympic Hot Springs is effectively gone: the Elwha road closure turned it into a ten-mile hike and the Park Service has backfilled pools over bacterial contamination. Spokane’s informal river alcoves below Bowl and Pitcher and on the Little Spokane are local, unpublicized, and ranger-sensitive. And a clarification that matters: Rooster Rock and Collins Beach, the famous Columbia River nude beaches, are on the Oregon side. Washington’s side offers only informal gravel bars and the Dougan Falls gorges.
The Clubs
Tiger Mountain Family Nudist Park in Issaquah, founded in 1937, is the state’s oldest continuously operating club, with a solar-heated pool, hot tub, sauna, volleyball, and forested trails. Kaniksu Ranch near Loon Lake, established in 1939 on 160 acres of pine forest north of Spokane, maintains a heated pool, pickleball and volleyball courts, a 5K trail system, and the Bare Buns Fun Run, one of the country’s long-running nude 5K events. Point Wells, the old Puget Sound nude beach near the Edmonds line, is historical only: railroad security and redevelopment have closed the shoreline.
The Law
RCW 9A.88.010 criminalizes “open and obscene” exposure made knowingly in a way likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm, and Washington courts have consistently held that simple, non-sexual nudity does not meet the obscene standard. State v. Batten in 1980 and State v. L.A. in 1998 both require proof of lascivious intent. Topfree status is legal statewide, and the Seattle Police Department’s own guidance confirms that non-sexual nudity in parks is not a criminal offense. Seattle Municipal Code 12A.10.070 mirrors the state statute. The practical rule is the one the courts enforced: keep it non-sexual, keep it where it is expected, and you are inside the law.
Events
Two June traditions should not be confused. The Seattle World Naked Bike Ride is a clothing-optional protest ride, unpainted or painted as riders choose. The Fremont Solstice Parade’s painted cyclists are a permitted street-art tradition that requires body paint or costume, and it ends at Gas Works. Beyond those, Tiger Mountain and Kaniksu host open days and AANR swim meets through the summer.
Washington is not a state where you look for a nude beach and hope. It is a state where the beach is written into a court order, and the season is short enough that everyone who goes knows exactly why they are there.
Flying in? Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) is the gateway for the Puget Sound beaches, with Paine Field (PAE) serving the north end and Spokane (GEG) the inland clubs. Search and compare fares on Kayak. Disclosure: affiliate link – if you book through it, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Where to Stay Near the Beach
Denny Blaine sits inside Seattle proper, which means the whole city is your lodging base. The map below centers on the beach and the Lake Washington corridor.
Disclosure: this map contains affiliate booking links. If you book through it, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Related Guides
For the beaches across the river, see our Oregon guide. For the bare facts on the state next door, the California guide. Kaniksu’s Bare Buns Fun Run sits in our worldwide nude runs directory, and the club circuit appears in the resort and club directory.
Sources: RCW 9A.88.010; State v. Batten (1980); State v. L.A. (1998); King County Superior Court rulings in Denny Blaine Park for All v. City of Seattle (2025-2026); Seattle City Council resolution (September 2024); Friends of Denny Blaine; Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (Baker Hot Springs); National Park Service (Olympic Hot Springs, Elwha); Tiger Mountain Family Nudist Park; Kaniksu Ranch.
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