Perfect Holiday Walk

Seattle stairs are, in one important respect, at their very best during the holidays. By this time all the leaves are down on the deciduous trees, which really opens up a lot of stairway views. This was apparent on a surprisingly nice Friday, on the Thistle Street stairs (second-longest in Seattle at 367 steps). So if friends or family will be visiting over the holidays, try the stairs!

These stairs are part of the "Fauntleroy and Morgan Junction" stairway walk in West Seattle.  This route, as well as the "Alki from Above" stairway walk, will not only provide great views across Puget Sound; they also give a sense of the power of recent winter storms. You'll see many logs piled high up the shore, and many others still floating around.

For additional (and better) pictures of this route in a variety of seasons, consult the book and/or click here.

This photo shows how the leaves are down for the winter; of course there are also nice views on either side of these trees! (iPhone photo)

Storm-tossed logs in Puget Sound (iPhone photo)

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