Seattle, Lake Washington and the Eastside
Lost a ring or phone off a Seattle dock?
Puget Sound tides that move 11 feet in a day, and lakes with no tide at all.
A phone has enough metal in it to read clearly on a detector, so on Lake Union the question is never whether it can be picked up. It is how deep. Off a dock that means a diver, and in the shallows at a lake swim beach it means a wade. On Puget Sound the tide settles it instead: the water at Seattle moves up to 11.36 feet (3.46 metres) in a day, so a spot under water at noon can be open sand by evening.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that works with experienced local metal detectorists to search for a ring, wedding band, watch or phone lost in Seattle, Lake Washington and the Eastside, in Washington state.
Tell us what happened and where. We choose an experienced detectorist who knows the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Mark it against the dock, the float line or the fire pit
Mark the spot before you leave. Drop a pin, line yourself up with a fire pit, a lifeguard chair, a dock post or a float line, and photograph it each way. If it went into Puget Sound, note the time, because the tide at Seattle moves up to 11.36 feet (3.46 metres) in a day.
Then send the pin, the photos, roughly when it happened and what the piece is made of. Say whether it went down on sand, on a lawn, in a lake or off a dock, because only one of those four needs a diver.
Places we cover in Seattle, Lake Washington and the Eastside
- Alki Beach, West Seattle
- Golden Gardens Park, Ballard
- Discovery Park, Seattle
- Green Lake, Seattle
- Lake Union, Seattle
- Lake Washington beaches from Madison Park to Seward Park
- Mercer Island, Luther Burbank, Groveland and Clarke beaches
- Bellevue, Meydenbauer Bay, Chism and Newcastle beach parks
- Redmond, Idylwood Beach Park
- Bothell
- Issaquah and Lake Sammamish State Park
- Renton, Gene Coulon and Kennydale beach parks
- Kent and Lake Meridian Park
- Federal Way and Steel Lake Park
- Edmonds waterfront beach parks
- Mukilteo Lighthouse Park
- Everett and Jetty Island
- Lake Stevens and Lundeen Park
- Granite Falls
- Sultan
- Bainbridge Island and Fay Bainbridge Park
- Vashon Island and Point Robinson
Beaches and lakes where rings go missing around Seattle
Saltwater beaches with a big tide, lake beaches with none.
Alki Beach and Golden Gardens
Alki runs about 2.5 miles (4 km) from Alki Point to Duwamish Head, and minus tides uncover a wide expanse of sand. Golden Gardens in Ballard has a sandy upper beach and a rockier shore where a ring can drop between stones. The water at Alki is 46 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 13 Celsius), so rings slide off cold fingers at the edge.
Discovery Park
Discovery Park is 560 acres on Magnolia Bluff with two miles of tidal beach under the cliffs, and the trail to South Beach drops about 280 feet (85 metres). Winter storms pull the sand offshore and leave the beach stony, and calmer months bring it back, so the season matters here.
Lake Washington, Seattle to Renton
Madison Park and Matthews Beach have floating platforms with 1 metre and 3 metre boards. At the south end Renton has Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park, with a swimming beach and a 900 foot (274 metre) pier, and Kennydale Beach Park. A ring in the shallows is a fair search. One off a platform, or a phone off a Lake Union dock, is a diver.
Bellevue and Mercer Island beach parks
There are six Bellevue beach parks, of which Meydenbauer Bay, Chism and Newcastle have lifeguards in summer and float lines on the water to measure against. On Mercer Island, Luther Burbank, Groveland and Clarke are unguarded, so a dock post or a picnic table is the marker to photograph.
Lake Sammamish State Park, Issaquah
Two swimming beaches, Tibbetts Beach and Sunset Beach, with buoys marking the recreation areas. The lake has no tide, so a band that comes off in the shallows stays put, and those buoys are the one thing on that water you can point at in a photograph.
Edmonds and Mukilteo waterfront
Edmonds has four beach parks, Brackett's Landing North and South, Olympic Beach and Marina Beach Park. Mukilteo Lighthouse Park sits on Puget Sound beside the lighthouse, as clear a landmark as this coast offers. An earring dropped at the water's edge in either town is tidal ground, so low water sets the hour.
Jetty Island, Everett
Jetty Island is a two mile, man-made island off the Everett waterfront, reached by the foot ferry from Jetty Landing. The Port of Everett calls it the longest sandy beach in Puget Sound, and the water off the sand is shallow and warms as the tide comes back in.
How a Seattle case is put together
One person on WhatsApp
One person stays with you from the first questions to the result.
Your map and photos reach the detectorist
Whoever searches gets your pin, photos and timeline before they set out.
We plan around tides and lake depth
Sound beaches from Vashon to Everett are searched in a low tide window that moves daily. On the lakes, depth matters instead.
Sand, lawn, lake and dock are four jobs
Dry sand at Alki, a wet lawn in Kent, the shallows at Lake Meridian and deep water off a Lake Union dock each need a different person. We tell you which yours is.
Costs said out loud, early
You are told what a search would run to before anyone is asked to cross the water or sit on the bridges, and you decide from there.
Conditions that shape a search around Seattle
The facts a detectorist works from on Sound beaches, lake shores and lawns.
Puget Sound tides
The NOAA station at Seattle gives a mean tidal range of 7.66 feet (2.33 metres) and a great diurnal range of 11.36 feet (3.46 metres). Everett gives 11.09 feet (3.38 metres). A ring lost in the water at mid tide may be on open sand a few hours later.
Lakes with no tide
Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, Green Lake, Lake Meridian and Lake Stevens have no tide, so nothing moves the ring once it settles. Depth decides whether a wading detectorist can work it or a diver is needed.
Rain, lawns, cobbles and rivers
November is one of the wettest months in Seattle at around 6.3 inches (160 mm), and a ring on a wet lawn is soon trodden in. Discovery Park turns stony after winter storms. Sultan sits where the Wallace, Skykomish and Sultan rivers meet, and a ring lost in moving river water is a far harder search than one on grass.
Cold water at the edge
Seattle Parks gives the water at Alki as 46 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 13 Celsius). People wade in it anyway, and cold water shrinks fingers until a ring slides off without being felt. That is why so many of these happen a few steps in, and why the spot is usually closer to shore than people expect.
Want a first idea of your chances? Try the lost ring recovery calculator.
Questions about Seattle, Lake Washington and the Eastside
My phone went into Lake Union off a dock. Can it be found?
Often, and the depth decides how. A phone reads clearly on a detector, so the hard part is not finding it but reaching it, and off a dock on Lake Union that is a diver rather than someone wading. Tell us which dock, how far along it you were standing, and whether it went straight down or bounced off the decking first, because a bounce can put it several feet out.
I lost my ring in the sand at Alki Beach. How long have I got?
Longer than you fear on the dry sand, less than you would like at the water line. Alki runs about 2.5 miles (4 km) from Alki Point to Duwamish Head, and minus tides uncover a wide expanse of sand, which is the window a searcher wants. Tell us how far along from the Point you were, what you were level with on the street side, and the time, and the right tide follows from that.
I lost my Oura ring or watch swimming at Lake Sammamish. Can it be found?
There is a fair chance. A lake has no tide to move it, and an Oura ring and most watches are metal a detector picks up. What matters is the depth and which beach you were at, Tibbetts or Sunset, both of which have buoys on the water to measure yourself against. If it happened at Idylwood Beach Park on the Redmond side instead, say so, because that is a different shore and a different search.
I lost my wedding band at Lake Meridian, Steel Lake or Lake Stevens. What should I do?
Note where you were in relation to the dock or the swim beach, and when. Lake Meridian Park in Kent has a swim beach and a dock, Steel Lake Park in Federal Way has a swimming area, and Lundeen Park in Lake Stevens has a swim beach and a pier. With no tide, a band that slipped off in the shallows stays where it fell, so a week is not the disaster it would be on the Sound. Depth decides whether this is a wade or a dive.
Can you search on Bainbridge Island or Vashon Island?
Yes, if a detectorist can reach the spot. Fay Bainbridge Park has 1,420 feet (433 metres) of saltwater shoreline on the northeast corner of the island. Point Robinson Park on Maury Island, joined to Vashon, is a 10 acre park with a sandy beach wrapping around the point. Both are tidal, so the hour matters as much as the place, and a ferry crossing goes into the plan.
Should I rent a metal detector and search myself?
You can. Before you look up metal detector rental Seattle options, two things are worth knowing. A detector takes practice to swing and to read, and a thin ring gives a weak signal in ground already full of bottle caps and foil. The other is water: nothing borrowed off a shelf reaches a phone off a Lake Union dock.
What if it cannot be found?
Then we tell you, and we tell you what was covered. Some of these are a long shot from the start, such as a ring in deep water off a diving platform, under the winter cobbles at Discovery Park, or in the moving water where the rivers meet at Sultan, and you would hear that from us first.
Seattle, Lake Washington and the Eastside
The dock post, or the tree on the lawn
Where it happened, what it was, the hour, and a photo.
Depth is the question on the lakes, the tide is the question on the Sound. Send the spot, the hour and a photo on WhatsApp, and we will tell you which one you are up against.