Public Stairway Walk: "Alki from Above"

Recently, we led a public stairway walk along the route described in Chapter 18, "Alki from Above." We volunteered as Walking Ambassadors for Feet First, a membership organization that promotes neighborhood walkability and walking. They're currently working with King County on the "West Seattle In Motion" campaign. About 20 people joined us to explore North Admiral and Alki and enjoy all the georgeous Fall colors!  

Our 3.4 mile loop began just outside the southeast corner of Schmitz Preserve Park, heading along residential streets through North Admiral. Then at College Street Ravine we began a steep, curving descent down the bluff toward Alki Beach. A series of stairways took us down to the Alki Beach Trail, where we strolled beachside for a few blocks. 

Heading back, we took a well-hidden set of stairs that led us farther up the bluff toward Admiral Way and Schmitz Preserve Park. Just past the vintage 1936 bridge over the ravine, we stepped down a corkscrewing timber stairway into the park. There, a trail led us across Schmitz Creek and up and out the far southeast end of the ravine toward our starting place. We got lucky, nearing the end of our loop just as rain started up!

This was a fun tour of Seattle stairs at an especially colorful time of year for urban hiking. Feet First does good work, and we hope to do more public walks of Seattle stairways with them.

Solstice Park

This Seattle stairs route, like the Fauntleroy and Morgan Junction stairway walk in the book, takes place in the Fauntleroy neighborhood of West Seattle. It's considerably shorter though, at just over a mile long. The loop turns back toward the starting place at Solstice Park, which features a massive astronomical construction of stone and earth - West Seattle's Stonehenge. For some interesting information and history about this very cool little park, check out the Seattle Parks link here.

A pause before turning down the Ida Street stairs; a neighbor has placed a small bench alongside the stairway

Graceful Solstice Park stairway

A solstice sunset predictor: line up the trench with the stone tablet beyond