Viewpoint Walk

Hello:

Bellevue has an amazing set of public walks.  The city has wisely preserved bits of greenspace all over town, and in many of them, there are well maintained public walks.  I am going to try to document some of them over the next year.

I am starting with one that is close to where I live, Viewpoint Walk

View Larger Map  |  Get Directions  |  View Bird's Eye

This walk starts at the deadend of NE 16th Street.

If you take the left side, that is a "cut-through" to the next neighborhood, a shortcut for kids walking to Bennett Elementary School.  These cut-throughs are fairly common in my neighborhood.  They save you from having to walk the long way around when streets deadend or are cul-de-sacs.

The right side of the fork has a Park and Rec sign, showing that it is a Walk.

And there is the path ahead of you.

After a few minutes, other than the path is very well maintained and mulched, you would swear you were in the woods somewhere, and not in the 6th largest city in Washington.

Because there are always streams here (dry now in the summer), there are small wooden bridges.

Occasionally, there are benches.

The trail branches off in a few places.  Some loop back around.

Some take you out of the walk to a different entrance/exit.

The trees form a beautiful tunnel in parts.

Although the path is relatively flat as it cuts across a hill, this is Bellevue, and there are some inclines.

There are always  blackberries, though even when ripe, these are somewhat bitter. (edited to add that my friend GwenS identified these as the invasive Himalayan Blackberries.  Highly invasive and difficult to control and they aren't even good for picking.)

Get away from the city, in the city.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a Viewpoint