Eight Bellevue Parks and Garden d'Lights

Let's go visit eight Bellevue Parks! We'll start at the Bellevue Transit Center, and ride the #226 bus together to our first park, Weowna Park. (Get it? We Own A Park? Ha ha?) After a bit of a tour of the park, we'll continue on to Lake HIlls Community Park, then along the Lake Hills Greenbelt, to Larsen Lake and the Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm. We can stop for lunch whenever folks get peckish, but likely at Larsen Lake. After this we'll head for little-known Spiritridge Park, which is the access point for the even-less-known Richard's Valley Loop trail. From there, we'll dip into Bannerwood Park, just to up our park count by one -- this is mainly a ballfield. Then we'll head up to Kelsey Creek Park, Wilburton Hill Park, and end up at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. We should arrive there by 4-4:30pm.

Folks can optionally stay for Garden d'Lights, the annual transformation of the Garden from plants to lights. Tickets are $10 (free for kids 10 and younger). When folks are ready to leave, they can catch the #271 a few blocks away, back to the Bellevue Transit Center.

https://bellevuebotanical.org/garden-dlights/

https://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/#226

https://pugetsound.onebusaway.org/#271

Logistics:

Meet at Bellevue Transit Center bay 11, which is at the west end of the passenger platform, on the north side. The #226 bus departs at 10:30am, so we want to be there with some time to spare.

Bring water, lunch. Bring something to sit on, in case we decide to have lunch where there aren't picnic tables. Coffee and pastries are available at Bellevue Botanical Garden if you're staying for Garden d'Lights, but they likely won't have other food.

The walk is about 7.7 miles, less than 1000 ft elevation gain. Our first restroom opportunity will be about 2 miles from the start of our walk. The event end time doesn't include the optional visit to Garden d'Lights.

Current weather forecasts show possible sprinkles. Saturday is bracketed by atmospheric rivers, so some may slop over. Be prepared for wet air.

At previous visits to Garden d'Lights, we had no trouble getting tickets for that day. Tickets are timed entry. We stopped before getting in line, and purchased tickets online. The Garden opens at 4:30pm for Garden d'Lights. It should be dark enough by then for the lights displays.

Saturday is Winter Solstice Eve, so is almost the shortest day of the year. So you may want to bring a flashlight / headlamp for use on the way home.

Use comments to coordinate.