Seattle Sketcher: Gabriel Campanario

Since 2009, Barcelona-born Gabriel Campanario has been a beloved fixture at the Seattle Times.  In his weekly "Seattle Sketcher" column and his blog, Gabriel draws scenes of everyday life all over town, capturing the essence of Seattle in a way that strongly moves many who live here.

Tonight Gabriel was honored by the Museum of History and Industry at the opening of a new exhibition of his work. We were happy to see so much of it in one place - including several scenes of Seattle stairways. If the last sketch looks familiar, that's because it shows the Eagle Landing stairs, which were the subject of the previous post!

The Blaine Street stairsStairway mapper and runner Doug Beyerlein on the Howe Street stairs

Eagle Landing stairway

Eagle Landing in Winter

Today we had business in Burien, which gave us the opportunity to visit Eagle Landing Park and its fabulous stairway (see Chapter 23 for more info and pictures). The Eagle landing stairway switchbacks approximately 289 steps from a bluff overlooking Puget Sound all the way down to the waters' edge . Other stairways make a similar journey, but this one incorporates a pier-and-girder structure that floats strikingly above the host hillside. Once you've visited, you won't forget the park or these stairs!

The bottom of the Eagle Landing stairs: washed away

In summer Eagle Landing Park is a leafy, hushed sanctuary. In winter, though, half the trees are bare, exposing the undulating architecture of the steep parkland slope. Homes lurking on both sides of the trail are revealed, and the choppy gray Sound and sky becomes more prominent. When you hear the resident eagles call, it's easier to glimpse them wheeling above the treetops.

We were curious about conditions at the notoriously weather-beaten stairway bottom, which is at the mercy of storm tides in late Fall and Winter. There are now prominent signs warning that the stairway is impassable at the bottom, and we found that more stairs have been swept away since our last visit. See the slides below for some views. Nature will win, sooner or later!