It's been a while, but I did a new walk recently. And surprisingly, it was a local walk (a 20 minute drive away) that I did on a mid-week lunchtime last week. The walk encompasses 2 parks alongside the northeast edge of Lake Washington, located in the Juanita neighbo(u)rhood in Kirkland. It's an area I don't know very well, though I think I looked at a place to live somewhere around here when I first moved to Seattle however many years ago that was (glad I didn't, because the commute to work would have been absolutely horrendous). One of the main reasons I haven't done this walk before is that I thought the parking might be a nightmare. But I was wrong, one of the parks has a big (and free) parking lot. However, this is not a walk to do if I'm seeking peace and solitude. Especially on sunny days, these trails will be busy. And we are not talking a particularly challenging trek - only a couple of miles and flat. But for an urban walk, it is quite pretty with the lake views (you can just about see the tip of the Seattle skyline at one point) and a surprising amount of wildlife (lots of birds and, perhaps best of all, lots of basking turtles to be spotted!). I will come back here, and I imagine it might be best done around sunset.
