Day Hike - Mercer Island: Mercerdale Hillside & I-90 Sculpture Parks

We will meet shortly before 6pm at the intersection of Southeast 32nd St and 74th Ave Southeast -- just to the west of Mercerdale Park.  Use the intersection --not Mercerdale Field -- if mapping software is providing directions.  Most streets dead end east and west of the hilly park.

Early evening hikes in the city call for headlamps and urban variations on the 10 essentials.  No cotton, please, but reflective items add to our safety crossing city streets. Sunset is 6:30 pm, civil twilight a half hour later. Smaller umbrellas are OK, too.

Participants familiar with Mercer Island's history, architecture, urban horticulture or other insights to our route are welcome to help with the narration.  Pace will adjust to hikers' comfort and fitness level -- this is not a marathon but a reasonable level of fitness is assumed for about 4 miles with at least 330 steps up and 525 steps down.  Elevation gain and loss about 830'.

The hike is the 23rd of 24 planned hikes from Seattle Stairway Walks. The Mercerdale hillside trails offer botanical, avian and architsectural delights plus  some prime walking territory. This the enhanced  version of the Mercer Island: Mercerdale Hillside #25  in Seattle Stairway Walks (2013).

Check out the Seattle Stairways blog here: http://www.seattlestairwaywalks.com/.  And Discovering Seattle Parks (Westerlind, 2017 Mountaineers Books) is a wonderful guide to our city and nearby regional parks systems.