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For this week’s Seattle People photo essay, Jenny Jimenez went outside city

Published 7:00 am Monday, September 24, 2012

There is a para-gliding association nearby. One year a para-glider lost his height and crashed into a tree and into the park. The park members rushed to help and took him to the hospital.
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There is a para-gliding association nearby. One year a para-glider lost his height and crashed into a tree and into the park. The park members rushed to help and took him to the hospital.
There is a para-gliding association nearby. One year a para-glider lost his height and crashed into a tree and into the park. The park members rushed to help and took him to the hospital.
A view of one of the camping areas.
One of the two hot tubs in the pool area.
Caroline, the first lady of Fraternity Snoqualmie puts a new top coat on her pedicure. She says, The cool thing about this place is that the things we typically use to define ourselves and identify ourselves to other people are gone. You can't look at somebody and say ok, they belong to this sector socioeconomically or professionally. Suddenly you are in a position of taking everyone at face value and all you really have in common is a tan and a smile. When you're starting from something as simple and straight forward as that, all kinds of things are possible. Barriers that might otherwise prevent you from even ever saying hello don't exist. I have made more friends here and met more people that I ever would have met outside of here for that reason. Up here we don't have the means or the need to judge each other by those cues. I know that there are people that have preconceived notions about places like this. Their preconceptions are that a park like ours would be risky or would be something other than what it is but I am here to tell you that I have never felt safer in my life. I can be exactly who I am.
Keith, Persephone & Tom drive all the way from Spokane every year from Nudestock. They say it's a family reunion for them. One of their favorite parts is the nighttime bonfire.
Clothing is optional in all places but one - in the water. You also must bring a towel to sit on.
Dave from Florida came all the way up here with his wife just for Nudestock. They came ten years ago and have been looking forward to coming back. If more people could just try it. You only have to try it once. It's just a feeling of freedom. It's just awesome. In the last ten years my wife and I have been to 53 different nudist resorts all over the world; the United States, England, France, Australia, every place we go. We have a fenced in backyard and have always liked skinny-dipping although now that we're older it's not called skinny-dipping anymore, it's called chunky-dunking. We got a little bit fatter.
Mike, one of the Nudestock organizers.
They say Park Forestia feels like home.
William and Lexy come up a few times a year and travel to other nudist parks across the country. We come for the sun, says William.
Will told me about all the various clothing optional areas in the Pacific Northwest. One of his favorites is Wreck Beach in Vancouver, BC. He says there is nothing else like it on the west coast.
Richard grabs a drink at Picnic Glenn, named after a longtime member that passed away years ago.
There is a mandatory three visit rule before you can become a member of the park. Richard's wife, Pam, was skeptical when he suggested she come try it out, but after her first visit, she couldn't wait to return. Here she relaxes in the shade with a crossword puzzle.
Fraternity Snoqualmie began in the 30s and found their current home on the side of Tiger Mountain in Issaquah, Park Forestia, in the mid 40s.
Mary grew up in a nudist family (her father has been a nudist most of his life) in Arizona but she is the only one of her siblings that is still one.
Mary, 55, with her father, Preston, 85.
Inside Bare Essentials. One of the bumber stickers reads, If God had meant us to be nude, we'd have been born that way.
One of the oldest members of the club (he's been here over 50 years) enters the on-site convenient store, Bare Essentials. Reading materials and sunscreen are two popular items to purchase.
Richard, Dawnzella and Tom are past and current presidents of Fraternity Snoqualmie.
Fraternity Snoqualmie has been hosting Nudestock since the early nineties. It was originally sponsored and organized by the radio station KISW, but is now funded and organized solely by the club.
Club members letting loose on the dance lawn.
Mike from Gig Harbor comes up every year for Nudestock. He's been coming since 1996.
This weekend was the annual Nudestock festival, a day in the park with live music.
A bevy of recreational options.
This is Ellen, my welcoming committee. Every visitor has to check in at the Welcome Center before entering the park.

For this week’s Seattle People photo essay, Jenny Jimenez went outside city limits to experience Nudestock, Fraternity Snoqualmie’s annual celebration of music and fellowship at Park Forestia in Issaquah. Read Jenny’s conversation with three Fraternity dignitaries.Published on August 30, 2009

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