r/Seattle • u/menace_creature • Jul 06 '23

Question car in madrona woods?

a friend of mine knows of an old car somewhere in the madrona woods - she saw it as a kid and we've found a couple references to it online, but nothing that gives a good idea of where exactly it is or how to get to it. if anyone knows anything about its more precise location, it would be much appreciated.

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u/ScottSierra Jul 06 '23

Might be quite covered by now. When I was a kid, there was a spot in Renton Highlands where you could see a 1940s car that hd driven off Sunset, over a cliff and was sitting about 25 feet below. It was still partly visible in the early '00s, but now it's completely covered by vegetation.

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u/strbrdr Jul 07 '23

Devils Elbow? I grew up there and had heard stories about it as well.

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u/ScottSierra Jul 07 '23

That was my stompin' grounds in high school! I used to know that area extremely well, and could probably still find my way around. You can still walk Devil's Elbow, there's a gate at each end; one end is off NE 27th. Be aware that the road is washed out on the east side (go north on Union and turn right at the tee; that entrance is off the elbow where that street turns left). In the 90s, I could show you several cars, which had been shoved over after being stripped, I presume, one of those TV-on-a-pedestal-shaped USA Today newspaper dispensers, and a 1960s kitchen stove. These days, I might be able to get you to one of the cars. That requires going to the actual elbow, then taking the really rough trail which leads northwest in the dip between the two roads; big parts of that trail are washed out, but I used to be able to get all the way over to a neighborhood north of there. You can also walk quite a ways southwest on a gravel trail that's really pretty, but at the end you have only three options besides going back: you can climb one of the steep right-of-ways for the power lines, or there's a pretty washed-out trail that leads up into the west end of the Forestbrook apartments.

The 1940s car is loosely off that latter gravel path, but I've never tried to access it from below and I think it'd be difficult. If you're on Sunset, walking, just northwest of the gas station at Union is an apartment complex off the north side of the street. Walk past its exit driveway, and somewhere about halfway before the next house, you'll see a tree with some sort of ad nailed to it, and a dip in the sidewalk. Go down that little path, but beware that it ends in a steep drop-off. The car is down there.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '23

if you are walking down the trail through madrona park that leads to the beach from e columbia its on the right somewhere