The Mountains to Sound Greenway (MTSG) blogs has a great post written by Gordon Padelford showing which Seattle parks are adjacent, 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile away from Metro bus service. A great summer resource for bus and sun loving Seattleites. Fully post and table here:
Everyone knows The Mountains to Sound Greenway has some of the best hiking trails in this area. A rainy day hike to Granite Lakes a couple of weekends ago was no exception. With abundant hiking in the nearby Alpine Lakes Wilderness (the closest wilderness area to any major metropolitan area in the country!), it can be easy to overlook the wonderful trails in our neighborhood parks. Even the smallest urban trails can be places to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life for reflection! Some of them, like the Mercer Slough Heritage Trail, can give us a peek into our history. Others, such as Seward Park’s interior trails, are wooded enough that we can immerse ourselves in nature, forgetting the city is nearby.
How can those who choose not to, or can’t afford to, own a car get to these urban oases? Walking and biking are excellent options depending on your physical ability level and your proximity to the park. As far as transit is concerned, at least in the City of Seattle (we were asked by SDOT –see The Process* below for more information), trails are very well served by transit.
In Seattle there are 47 trails within a ½ mile of transit, 40 within a ¼ mile, and 34 that are adjacent! For more information see table 1. For suggestions including hikes outside of Seattle accessible by bus see Seattle Metro Bus Hiking. Happy hiking!
List here.
As it is finally summer, I have been really appreciating how Seattle provides access to so many large natural areas. It is no nice to go swimming in lakes and explore places like Discovery Park to feel connected to nature.
Here’s the link to the “hike metro” website, which the post did not include:
https://sites.google.com/site/seattlemetrobushiking/