A Hike in Northgate, part II

Dear Diary,

I trust I don't have to repeat the map from your last page?  (Hint to your readers:  Even when those readers are as few as y'all currently are, I can't really figure out whether anything I do is helpful or harmful unless y'all say something.)  This page is my discussion and photos of the last two parks I visited very close to Northgate Mall, and of the other, somewhat farther from the mall, half of a park whose very-close half I just described in that previous page.

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel

Behind this stultifying name hides a charming, though peculiar, little park.  One of its peculiarities, as in most Seattle Public Utilities parks, is signboards informing the viewer of many aspects of the ideal handling of water.  But these signboards can also include more immediately useful things, such as maps of the park:

and of the Thornton Creek watershed of which it's a part:

I forget whether it was the balloons on the first map or on something I didn't photograph that told me where the entrance to the northeastern half of Beaver Pond Natural Area is, but the second map is what convinced me to try again with Victory Creek Confluence Natural Area.

The creek enters this park through an artificial waterfall:

and then passes under two bridges:

Between the bridges there are plenty of (metal) benches, and a few concrete benches in the middle, on the main side, plus there's a path on the other side, mainly, I think, so residents of buildings on that side can take stairways down to the park; but there's also a staff entrance to the creek valley, which the paths and bridges for the public don't provide access to, for, um, obvious reasons; and the other side has two benches.

I think this photo was just random:

 

I also took photos of the art, which is unified enough to be obviously the work of one person.  That person's name, according to a report on the park's 2009 completion (PDF), is Benson Shaw, which sounded familiar, but Google doesn't know of my having named him before.  Anyway, some of the art:

All in all, it's a rather nice place to spend some time, and can no doubt be educational too, if one allows it to.

Maple Leaf Community Garden

This is one of two P-Patches in North Seattle owned by the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation rather than by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.  I've speculated on reasons why the parks department owns each; in this case, I suspect it's because of the gorgeous old tower there.  And I've told you that before, dear Diary, and even shown you photos of that tower, so I'll only add one more this time:

and note that this is another P-Patch with difficulties for the vertically challenged, but close with a more typical P-Patch picture:

Beaver Pond Natural Area, round 2

As I just said, a sign at the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel mentioned a possible access point to this park's northeastern block, so I decided to try again, assuming I'd ever tried much the first time, which isn't clear from either my memory or your pages, dear Diary.

Actually, my memory is also having trouble with the map this time.  My best guess is that I tried the dead end of 9th Ave NE into this block's southern side first, but got nothing.  Then I certainly went up 8th Ave NE toward the putative entrance at NE 106th St.  Along the way, I took this photo, which from the map must be of the southwestern block:

Once on NE 106th St, I turned east, heading for its dead end.  This proved to be a parking lot; there were two trails going south, which presumably lead to the linkage between the blocks, and I took a photo from each:

But these trails both dead-ended themselves pretty quickly, which made me think they were probably unofficial trails made by hikers like me.  It turns out one can walk along the western edge of the block, north alongside the parking lot, this is pretty obviously an authorised trail (it has signs warning dog walkers not to leave Number Two behind, as I mentioned re Flicker Haven Natural Area a day or two ago), and it too has views of the creek:

but it also leads to a turn which basically provides free access to the northwestern half, the half north of the South Fork, of this block of Beaver Pond Natural Area.  Here one does feel rather primæval.

And from here I was able to clamber up the embankment to Roosevelt Way NE, rejoin the street grid, and go on to the next hike, from Victory Creek to Victory Heights, which it's now obvious I'll have to tell you, dear Diary, about in the morning.  Sweet dreams until then.