Magnuson Park

Seattle, WA MAP LEGEND

Permanent Course Available

As a large (1:10,000-scale), open venue with profusely scattered vegetation, Magnuson Park is often an early-season school league venue. Rather than a collection of areas with different personality, this is a single and diverse collection of grassland, dark green, trails, roads, and water areas, with one notable large hill.

Event parking is usually in the northernmost parking lot along with water, for easiest access to the shelter and restrooms.

ABOUT THE PERMANENT COURSE

This venue features a permanent course, which you can do at any time! To try it out, print the PDF map and control descriptions below (or simply open them on your smart phone), read the instructions on the permanent course page, and have fun!

  1. Print/view Magnuson Park map
  2. Print/view Magnuson Park control descriptions (needed to complete the permanent course)
  3. Introduction-Orienteering Permanent Course at Magnuson Park

CascadeOC supports many permanent courses over a large geographic area and our volunteers have limited time to keep up with maintenance. If you observe any damaged, obscured, or missing markers, or if you can help regularly monitor and maintain this permanent course, please let us know. Thanks for your help!

To find more venues with permanent courses, visit the Map of Maps page, where each permanent course is marked by a yellow pin.

Note: This sample of the map is provided here for educational purposes only; the map shown here is not kept up-to-date.

The permanent orienteering courses at Magnuson Park were designed and installed as a Boy Scout Eagle Award Service Project by Luke Hedlund, Boy Scout Troop 186, Seattle, WA.

The purpose of providing these navigational and physical ratings below is to provide greater context for how challenging an orienteering course at this venue might be. For example, an advanced-level course at a local city park will be easier to complete than an advanced-level course in the mountains.

Navigational Challenge Rating: 3/10

Aside from “kite hill” there are not many topographic features at Magnuson Park. However, Magnuson makes up for it with many indistinct and criss-crossing small trails hidden in tall grass, that make this park tricky in some areas. Also, depending on recent weather, the marshy areas may be smaller or larger than reflected on the map.

Physical Challenge Rating: 3/10

Magnuson Park is relatively flat, with the exception of the large “kite hill.” The footing on small trails can be very lumpy, with off-trail travel being even more so. However, there also a number of well-groomed trails and roads that cut through the park.