Summer on the Blaine Stairs

A few days ago, we walked the "Eastlake, North Capitol Hill and Portage Bay" route (Chapter 9). Among its many attractions is the Howe stairway, longest in Seattle with 388 steps; Colonnade Mountain Bike Skills Park underneath I-5; and peaceful Astrid's Park, a tiny shoreline park next to Portage Bay.

One of our very favorite attractions on this route is the Blaine stairway (293 steps), which gives urban explorers access to beautiful 1-acre Streissguth Gardens. The gardens were our special target for the day, and we weren't disappointed. Below are a few pictures, but a personal visit is highly recommended! 

Eastlake, North Capital Hill, and Portage Bay

This stairway walk carries you from the top of Capitol Hill down to the edge of Eastlake, before heading back up the hill and over to Portage Bay. As Seattle stairs go, this is the route with the mostest: you'll get a chance to climb the longest stairway in Seattle, the Howe Street stairs, though on this route they don't come all at once - and there's an optional shortcut too. Of course, you can do all 388 steps in one go, if you want to.

Note that the "www" icon above the slideshow indicates extra content that's referred to in the book. 

This view across Lake Union is from Streissguth Gardens, an early highlight along the route, just off the Blaine Street stairs 

Colonnade Mountain Bike Skills Park, shown in the slideshow above, is a very special park. It's located just below the Blaine and Howe Street stairways and directly under the freeway. You can view a video of Colonnade riders exercising their considerable mountain biking skills here.