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Seattle’s coolest photo ops
A trip to an adventurous playground might thrill the young ones, but as kids get older, they become decidedly harder to please. It takes something special to lure your tweens and teens away from their screens. Entice them out of the house with a visit to some of Seattle’s unique and highly Instagrammable landmarks.
For those finicky tweens or teens, for visitors or newcomers to Seattle, or for anyone who likes to take memorable photos for their followers, we’ve selected five unusual and Instagram-worthy spots to visit around town:
First stop: Under the bridge
More adventures for Seattle-area families:
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in March 2024, and was updated on June 12, 2025, by ParentMap’s family fun editor, Meredith Charaba, with a thorough fact-check.
Fremont Troll
This troll lives under a bridge, but he’s not looking to snack on billy goats. Instead, the kinda fierce, kinda friendly Fremont Troll poses with you for photos, staring out with his hubcap eye and clutching — yes, it’s real — a Volkswagen Bug.
Save a little time after taking your photos to stroll around the Fremont neighborhood, which bills itself as The Center of the Universe, and you’ll catch a glimpse of other unusual landmarks. You might spot a towering statue of Vladimir Lenin, a rocket ready for takeoff or a leafy-green Apatosaurus mom and baby.
Next stop: Howdy, pardner
Hat ‘n’ Boots
The Georgetown neighborhood is full of Seattle history, but there’s nothing more spectacular than the Hat ‘n’ Boots, a 44-foot-wide orange cowboy hat and a 22-foot-tall pair of blue cowboy boots.
These relics were once part of a popular gas station in the area, and luckily for us, they were saved and installed at petite Oxbow Park. Set up your shot with the hat “on” your head, scramble onto the boots or choose an angle to get the set together in the frame.
Airplane buffs will love how the planes fly in low and loud to land at nearby Boeing Field. Wander the neighborhood to inspect its historic buildings and mixture of industry and charming older homes. If you’ve got younger kids with you, don’t miss the fantastic playground at nearby Georgetown Playfield. If you’re in the neighborhood on a weekend, stop by the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall.
Next stop: Chew first, then shoot
The Gum Wall
Hilarious or disgusting? You’ll want to take a very close look at Seattle’s famous Gum Wall to decide for yourself. Wow, that’s a lot of ABC (already been chewed) gum collected in one place! Reportedly, the Gum Wall got started when people waiting to get into a nearby club had to leave their gum behind. While the wall was cleaned in November last year, it does not take long for it to fill back up. Buy some gum from a Pike Place Market merchant to make your own deposit and snap a pic.
Iconic Pike Place Market offers loads more fun for all ages: Pose on Rachel the Pig, gobble up some mini doughnuts and seek out the giant squid in the atrium.
Next stop: Blackbird, blackbird
‘Crow With Fries’
Public art doesn’t have to be highbrow, mysterious or full of itself. “Crow With Fries” — a sculpture that looks just as its title describes — laughs (and caws) along with kids, park visitors and passersby from its perch in Auburn’s Les Gove Park. You’d do a doubletake for sure if you happened upon this shiny black corvid munching on a French fry — unless you were looking for it — which you should, of course, to snap your one-of-a-kind Instagram shot.
After you’ve taken your pics, be sure to explore the rest of the park. There’s a playground and climbing wall that the kids will love.
Next stop: Hump day
Two-hump camels and the ‘Black Sun’
A pair of stately Bactrian camels sits outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park, always ready to make an appearance in your photos — they’ve been posing for decades! And yes, you’re allowed to climb on them.
As any camel aficionado will tell you, Bactrian camels have two humps, they live in Asia, and there aren’t many left. Their one-humped camel cousins, dromedaries, are far more populous.
Fun fact: The original camels were moved indoors to the Seattle Art Museum downtown in 1991, and the current camels outside SAAM are replicas.
Volunteer Park delivers a twofer of spots ideal for posting on Instagram: Stop for a closeup with the famous “Black Sun” sculpture by Isamu Noguchi, which invites you to climb into its hole or frame the distant Space Needle within it.
While away the rest of the afternoon visiting the museum, touring the Volunteer Park Conservatory, climbing the water tower or playing on the playground.
