Golden Gardens now has a portable sauna

You may have noticed a big barrel parked at Golden Gardens.

It’s a 20-foot portable communal sauna, owned by Bywater Sauna and organized by the Coldwater Collective, a Seattle cold-plunge group.

Cold plunging is having a moment, with groups gathering at beaches around Seattle to plunge into the Puget Sound for a few minutes at a time.

There are a couple of local groups that meet at Golden Gardens every week; one is from the My Ballard Group on Facebook that meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. The Coldwater Collective meets on Fridays at 7:15 a.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m.

Bywater Sauna brings their large barrel sauna to Golden Gardens on Fridays and Saturdays, and they’re at Alki on Sundays.

The idea is to cold plunge, get in the sauna, and then do it again—the transition from hot to cold and back again is shown to have numerous health benefits, from mental health boosts to reducing inflammation.

For $35 minutes you can book a 60-minute session and transition back and forth between the water and the sauna. To book, visit Bywater’s website.

Photos: Bywater Sauna