A Great Stairway for a Rainy Day

Based on our own observations here in West Seattle, neighborhood walkers rarely shy away from a rainy day. If you have that "rain or shine" sensibility, try your rainy-day luck with the Horton street stairway, which heads down from 37th Avenue S in Mount Baker. It's a beautiful 100-step edifice that incorporates a cascading sluiceway down one side. On a sufficiently rainy day, the stream will accompany you down the stairs before pouring out of the mouth of a gargoyle at the bottom. This is yet another example of the delightful things you'll see when you explore Seattle stairs!

The stairway is not on our Mount Baker stairway walk, but you can easily combine the two into a customized route of your own. From the bottom of the Horton stairs it's a scenic 0.9 mile, one-way stroll to the main route's starting place, which itself is 2.4 miles long. With the Horton stairs as an added side trip, you'll also enjoy a tree-lined stretch of Mount Baker Boulevard. This wide, park-like residential avenue is in fact a 3.6 acre City Park.

To find additional views of the Horton stairs, check out our links over on the sidebar: "Inventory of Seattle Stairs of 100 Steps or More" by Doug Beyerlein, and "All Stairs Seattle Guide" by Susan Ott and Dave Ralph. 

Horton Street stairs on a rainy day - Photo by Stephanie Wilson