College Hill Stair Climb

Hello:

Today, I climbed the College Hill Stairs.

I have driven past the bottom of these stairs where they connect to Kamber Rd. many times.

The red line shows the stairs.

The stairs connect the broken SE 24th St.  At the bottom is SE 24th St. and Kamber Rd., and at the top is SE 24th St. and 142nd Ave SE, right behind the football fields of Bellevue College.  This stair is a great shortcut to the college if you live down on College Hill.

Without the stairs, it is about a 1.1 mile hike around.


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With the stairs, it's about 150 steps. not counting the flatter sections.

These stairs are part of the Bellevue Trail System.  This means that they are pretty well maintained.

I started at the bottom on Kamber Rd. I parked across the street on SE 24th St.  Kamber Rd. can be busy, and cars go pretty fast there, for Bellevue. 

The stair climb begins with a series of short stairs divided by stretches of gravel path.  On your right is woods,

and on your left are some private homes.

There are Himalayan Blackberries growing all along the trail.

In the beginning, the sets of stairs are pretty small, and very doable.  The woods get a bit close at times.  They could stand to be cut back a bit, but mostly the trail is well trimmed.

The hand rails are in great condition.

In the middle, there is a long gentle slope with a gravel path.  Here, I am looking back down the stair climb.

The second half of the climb is a bit steeper with longer stretches of stairs.

They have taken the trouble to put in culverts, so that when it is raining, the water will not run across the stairs.

I can see the top!

When you climb the last step, you are on SE 24th St.

right behind the Bellevue College sports fields.

From the top of the steps, you can see downtown Seattle.

I counted 146 stairs on my way down.  That did not include the gravel path parts.

It is not really under the trees, so I am not sure how it would be to walk it in the rain, or how slippery the stairs would get.  It was beautiful on this overcast day.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet while climbing