The weather outside might be frightful, but at Seattle Parks and Recreation's Environmental Learning Centers, being out in it with the kids can be quite delightful.
By Alison Brownrigg | November 19, 2007
An obscure peak of land in Fremont with dramatic views will open as a city park next week, thanks to seven years of efforts by hard-working neighbors and other volunteers.
By Sanjay Bhatt | October 31, 2007
Any day when rain isn't pouring, all manner of human motion circles the last big remnant of deep and dark native forest that once covered the hills around Seattle. Joggers and walkers and wheel spinners huff, puff, pedal or push, feel the breeze blow in off Lake Washington, watch wigeons and mergansers dabble and dive, or even eagles wing and soar.
On a clear day, Mount Rainier visually leaps from the horizon in the southeast.
By Greg Johnston | November 24, 2005
What do a steel mill, Lorquin's Admiral butterflies, a shopping center, coho salmon, Chief Sealth High School students, public art and an ancient bog have in common?
Answer: The Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail in West Seattle.
By Kathryn True | August 18, 2005
The outing: If 702 acres of in-city wilderness doesn't excite your Northwest genes, nothing will. If you've never visited Tacoma's Point Defiance Park, home to these 702 acres, then it's time to excite your genes.
By Terry Tazioli | June 23, 2005
You could almost get lost paddling the bird-rich, turtle-crazy cattail corridors that surround Foster Island in the Washington Park Arboretum -- except for that damned floating freeway and its wheels-on-concrete- internal- combustion commotion.
Paddling a canoe or kayak around Foster Island -- deep into the Arboretum's wetlands -- is a decades-old Seattle tradition, and a fairly convincing demonstration that a flourishing, biologically rich ecosystem can coexist with rampant roadways and mass humanity.
By Greg Johnston | March 31, 2005
Frink Park, Seattle
The .75-mile Big Loop Trail winds through a 17-acre mixed urban forest past cooling slope wetlands and a waterfall. Benches provide spots to reflect and recharge for the uphill return to the trailhead.
By Kathryn True | August 19, 2004
In a series of searing summer days, it's another cooker and the sun-weary are looking for escape from the pavement. But at high noon in Dead Horse Canyon, a mysteriously well-kept secret in Southeast Seattle, people with hints of Cheshire grins are walking their dogs along Taylor Creek in shady comfort.
"It's always at least 10 degrees cooler than in the surrounding areas, and the trail takes you very close to the creek," said Tim Gannon, program manager with Seattle Public Utilities' Urban Creek Program. He has worked on this restoration project for five years.
By Kathryn True | August 19, 2004
The walk: Here's a rare walk: You can take in an entire community not just a piece of it in a single afternoon. Even people who live on the Eastside may not be familiar with tiny Beaux Arts Village, the smallest jurisdiction in King County at a mere 10th of a square mile and a population of just over 300.
By Lucy Mohl | May 6, 2004
At about a dozen off-leash parks in the greater Seattle area, they run, they chase, they bark, they strut, they squat, they socialize and they sniff out the opposite sex.
And you should see some of the things the dogs do, too.
Scratch the surface of any off-leash area and you'll find out these free-ranging places are as much for the human species as the canine.
By Greg Johnston | April 15, 2004
