The Olmsted Vision Stairway Walk - Seattle - January 13, 2013

One of several sets of stairs that we walked.

This was a really fun urban walk that I did with a friend. The walk comes from a book called Seattle Stairway Walks An Up And Down Guide To City Neighborhoods. The name of the walk is The Olmsted Vision. This walk takes you through three parks; Washington Park Arboretum, Interlaken Park and Volunteer park. More about the walk in a minute. An interesting Washington State History tie in to my last post about Northern State Hospital. The Olmsted Firm (a very historically significant landscape architecture firm) designed both the grounds of Northern State Hospital and the three parks above as well as other parks and grounds across the country from 1857-1979. Okay, enough history. I just thought it was interesting and had to share.

The whole idea of urban stairway walks is new to me. I had no idea that such a book existed. It's a great way to be able to get your exercise walking in the city, but it's also very similar to hiking with all of the stairs you go up and down.

We parked on a neighborhood street near the Montlake Branch of the Seattle Public Library. We went on a Sunday, so street parking didn't have a time limit. There are public transit options and other parking options listed in the book. If you decide to do this walk or others in the book you will definitely need the book for the maps and details. My local Snohomish County Library has the book and I'm on the waitlist for it now, although I'm thinking about purchasing it.

A beautiful bench along the route

We followed the map and route from the book, walking for a while and then stopping at the Volunteer Park Cafe for a delicious snack (I had coffeecake) and tea. After we finished our snack, we headed back out along the route.

We climbed more stairs...

Soon we arrived at Volunteer Park.

We saw a peek-a-boo view of the Space Needle through a sculpture.

 There wasn't much color out on this cold, winter day, but I spotted these and had to take a picture.

Another, natural set of stairs.

Which brought us to the Volunteer Park Water Tower with more stairs and beautiful views!

Climbing the water tower stairs.

View of the Space Needle from the water tower.

Seattle Skyline from the water tower

St. Joseph Catholic Church in the distance

A beautiful home outside Volunteer Park

Who knew there was an urban mountain bike skills park right under I-5?

A little more winter color I spotted:

Anyone have any idea what this is?

We walked past the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery. A Civil War cemetery.

Another beautiful view of the Seattle Skyline with the mountains in the background.

Another set of stairs to climb.

 A couple of fungus pictures, just because I couldn't help myself. ;-)

And a pretty piece of glass that I spotted in someone's garden along the way.

I highly recommend giving one of these stairway walks a try. There's no better way to spend a dreary winter day than exploring an interesting area that's close to home.

I'm going on another Stairway Walk this weekend. Stairway Walks Day is happening on Saturday and I'll be going on the Maple Leaf and Thornton Creek walk. I'll blog about it soon and let you know what I thought.

Happy Trails!

Northern State Mental Hospital (Yes I know it sounds like a strange place to hike) ~ February 2, 2013

My family and I met my Dad and Stepmom for a walk this past weekend. We went to the Northern State Recreation Area (formerly known as Northern State Mental Hospital) in Sedro Woolley. My parents have explored and walked most of the trails numerous times before, so they were excited to show us around.

I think this was one of the dairy barns that was used to help feed the
hospital population when it was operating.

Driving directions: Follow I-5 North or South to SR Highway 20 (in Mount Vernon.) Follow Highway 20 east to Sedro Woolley. You'll pass through most of Sedro Woolley. Keep your eyes open for a Dairy Queen on the right hand side of the road. Your turn will be two lights past this intersection. When you reach Helmick Rd, about 15 minutes after exiting I-5, turn left. The parking lot for the Northern State Recreation Area will be on the left.

If you are a fan of disc golf, you are in luck. There is an 18 hole disc golf course that follows several of the trails in the recreation area. We brought a couple of regular frisbees just to give it a try, but the game is actually played with a slightly different type of disc.

My boys trying out one of the targets

Another target. I thought this one looked like
an alien spacecraft. 

Okay, so back to the trails. There are several miles of trails, that meander around the park area. You can see all of the buildings that are still standing. There are signs that warn you against entering the structures, as some of them look pretty unstable. It was a lot of fun to see all of the old buildings, including a cannery, dairy, well pump house and more. They had a huge garden/farm that was used to feed the hospital residents. The hospital residents were able to do vocational training in farming, dairy farming, greenhouse operation, printing plant and others. This helped the hospital to operate self-sufficiently. You can read more about the history of the hospital here.

This appeared to be a barn or storage space possibly for outdoor equipment?

A view through the brush of one of the main buildings.

These were the pump houses for the well

The trails were wet and there were some that had shallow running water and mud on them. I wore my tennis shoes and wished that I had my hiking boots on so that my feet stayed dry. The trails are all mostly flat and made for a nice lowland, winter hike.

A little horseplay on the trail

The view of the mountains (or foothills) were spectacular on this clear, almost 50 degree day!

I love the cloud creeping up the hill in this shot.

If you are interested in hauntings and ghost stories, there are several stories associated with the hospital. I didn't read about them until after we had visited, but they just add another element of mystery to this lowland "hike."

I watched a hawk flying and diving for a while before we got in the car to go.

Happy trails!

Iron Goat Trail - Scenic Trailhead - August 23, 2012

We went for a hike on the Iron Goat Trail this past week. This is a beautiful area with lots of railroad history. We parked at the Scenic Trailhead (also known as the Iron Goat Interpretive Site), directly off of Highway 2, just East of mile marker 58.3. This is one of 3 trailheads that access the Iron Goat Trail. This trailhead parking area is the only one that does NOT require a NW Forest Pass.

There were a few cars in the parking lot around noon when we arrived. There are restrooms in the parking lot and an older restored caboose to look at before you set out.

We hiked from the Scenic Trailhead to the Martin Creek Trailhead. This portion of the trail is barrier free! It is about 3 miles to Martin Creek. We used the restroom there and headed back down the trail to the first crossover to the upper trail. We had planned to loop around when we got to Martin Creek, but weren't sure where the loop around was. We found a trail that switchbacked away from the Martin Creek trailhead, but weren't quite sure it was the right one, since there was no sign or marker and the map didn't show that portion of the trail as a switchback. We hiked the upper trail all the way to the Windy Point crossover and then back down to the Scenic Trailhead and the cars. It was almost 7 miles round trip. This could be cut shorter by going down to the Martin Creek Trailhead  and back or cutting up on one of the earlier crossover and coming back as well. The lower trail is definitely easier going and would be recommended for those with small children. The Windy Point Crossover takes you down 700 feet over one mile of trail.

Plenty of pretty views along the trail

A Pika that we saw just off the trail.

One of many train tunnels.

A view of a collapsed tunnel.

Trestle style bridge to walk across.

A view of the train running on the newer tracks they use currently.

A view up the old spillway.

Lots of ripe berries along the trail. We saw Huckleberries, Thimble berries, a couple of Blueberries
and these Black Caps (which were delicious by the way!).

We saw quite a few areas where there were sheets of metal that looked like they had
riveted together covering the hillside. Not sure what they were for.

Checking out another tunnel. Most of them were closed off, but had
a certain area that was cordoned off to allow for viewing.

And, of course there was time for chatting along the way as well. :)

Happy Trails!