Hike of the Week: Kelsey Creek

Enjoy quiet countryside in the heart of Bellevue at Kelsey Creek

Kelsey Creek

Quaint and historic link on Bellevue’s Lake to Lake Trail




by Craig Romano
photo by Craig Romano
produced by Michael Fagin

December 29, 2006

Quick Facts
Location: Bellevue, King County
Land Agency: City of Bellevue Parks Department
Roundtrip: 2.5 miles
Elevation gain: 100 feet
Access: From I-405, take the SE 8th Street exit (#12). Turn east and head up the Lake Hills Connector. Turn left at stop sign (128th Avenue SE). Turn right at SE 4th Place. Follow to end at a large parking lot.
Notes: Dogs must be leashed

One of the nicest suburban trail systems in Seattle’s Eastside is Bellevue’s Lake to Lake Trail. Beginning at Enatai Beach Park on Lake Washington and ending on the shores of Lake Sammamish, the Lake to Lake trail incorporates various trails through various parks within the city. Be sure to pick up a copy of Nature Trail Guide, the excellent park and trail booklet issued free by the Bellevue Parks Department.
Several of the links along the way are excellent destinations within themselves. The Kelsey Creek Community Park ranks as one of the area’s most popular parks. Over 200,000 people visit it each year. If you’re interested in hiking back into Bellevue’s Past, this park will take you there. Choose here among 2.5 miles of interconnected trails that’ll take you along Kelsey Creek, and through pastoral forests and farm grounds complete with sheep and horses. You’ll be projected back to a Bellevue 100 years earlier. Good woods trails and a nice easy one mile loop trail around the farm make for peaceful family-friendly hiking.
And if you want to log a few more miles, not too far from Kelsey Creek is bustling Wilburton Hill Park, an easy connection by foot. A Botanical Garden and over 5-miles of well groomed trail grace this 103-acre city park. If you continue east along the Lake to Lake Trail corridor you’ll eventually come to the Lake Hills Greenbelt. This 150-acre preserve like Kelsey Creek brings you back to the early 20th century; back to a time when Japanese-Americans farmed the bogs around Larsen Lake. The farm, the lake, and surrounding forest which includes mature cedars and firs, still remains almost the way it did 100 years ago.
The Lake to Lake Trail System offers countless possibilities for loops and variety. Start your explorations of this excellent trail network at Kelsey Creek Park.