Here’s a walk with almost nothing new in it to me. These are my old stomping grounds, featuring the neighborhoods I have lived in most of my time in Seattle and that I love most. Following the guidebook, however, had us combining favorite walks I would not normally mix, like the Arboretum (at the bottom) and Volunteer Park (at the top). It, of course, also had us going up and down stairs I’d long overlooked.
This route actually doesn’t have too many SDOT stairways in it. Most of the elevation changes happen in the walking trails within the Interlaken greenway and and about half of the book’s counted steps occur in the walk up to the viewing platform in the Volunteer Park Water Tower. Still, it is plenty of exercise to get from essentially Lake Washington to the top of Capitol Hill.
This is a walk with plenty of my favorite things in Seattle and lots of ways to create a full day. We added on the Washington Arboretum’s Winter Garden. You could also easily add looking for famous graves in the Lake View Cemetery, a stop in the Conservatory or Seattle’s Asian Art Museum, or combine this with Walk No. 9 for some serious stairs and a lot more elevation change.
Witt Winter Garden at the Arboretum
Teaching birds at Interlaken
Volunteer Park Conservatory
William Seward Statue
Seattle Asian Art Museum
Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery
Laurelhurst from Louisa Boren Park
An amazing combination
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I’m getting my exercise this winter following the walks in “Seattle Stairway Walks”. You can get your copy here.
On Saturday, February 8th, Feet First hosts its second annual Stairway Walks Day, with guided tours across Seattle neighborhoods, featuring stairs, stairs and more stairs! It’s a fund-raisier, so you buy your tickets right here: Brown Paper Tickets.
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