Urban Hike: Capitol Hill Public Stairs

Seattle is known to be a hilly city: pretty much anywhere you go there are lots of ups and downs. As part of that, the city has built a number of public stairs around town, so that its inhabitants can access different areas in various neighborhoods. The longest set of public stairs (and also one of the steepest) are the stairs that go from Lake Union all the way up to the top of Capitol Hill. Yesterday, with a couple of friends, we parked close to Lake Union and walked all the way up. It may look easy: but it was actually quite some exercise. According to my watch, we walked the equivalent of 32 flights of stairs, and my thighs could very much feel that. The "trail" ends at Volunteer Park, passing through the historic cemetery, at which point we visited the famous tombs of Bruce and Brandon Lee. To top it off, we climbed one final set of stairs: the stairs to the top of the historic water tower at Volunteer Park (built in 1906!) and with that we went from Lake Union to the very top of Capitol Hill. One final curiosity: part of the stairs goes under I-5, and you can see how the highway cut a gash in the middle of the city - it's clear where streets were cut off to make way for the big interstate viaduct. Now it's a big empty space surrounded by concrete columns.