A Sunny-Day Guide To Beaches On The Eastside

-- BELLEVUE

Sunny skies and hot temperatures have prompted Eastsiders to pack the car, grab the children and head to what we'll call ``the beach,'' despite an absence of sand.

Especially last weekend. Bellevue's beach parks - or at least the limited parking spots available for them - were maxed out.

Lee Springgate, Bellevue parks director, reports he and his children roamed from beach park to beach park Sunday, finally claiming the last spot in the smallest and most obscure one.

The city provides six different locations along Lake Washington for people to get wet. All of them are small and lie within residential areas. Each is a little different.

In four ways they're the same: All have views of trees and million-dollar houses. All have water measuring about 70 degrees this time of year. And they're all family-oriented and concessionless.

Here's a guide to Bellevue's Lake Washington beach parks. Next week: The beaches of Kirkland, Mercer Island and Lake Sammamish.

Meydenbauer

Beach Park

After a $70,000 renovation last year, Meydenbauer is an attractive little park that draws office workers, day campers and young women with their children.

A common site here at lunchtime is a blanket topped with mom and the children in swimsuits, munching chips and sandwiches. Dad's there too, stripped to the waist but wearing dress pants, black socks and shoes.

A shady road winds down to a small parking area and a strip of grass where people picnic and day campers play ball. Continuing down, a small, square swimming area bounded by a new boardwalk and buoys features a floating dock.

As with all Bellevue's beaches, there are no diving boards. But they do have lifeguards, who sport snazzy red swimsuits and work seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Water: Clear.

Sand: From a distance, the gray substance leading to the water resembles sand. Actually, it's small gravel and rocks.

Noise level: High.

Shade: Limited.

Size: Five acres; 260 feet of shoreline.

Access: Disabled persons may drive down a concrete path to close-in parking. Others can expect a steep hike that seems longer than it really is.

Overheard Conversation: ``Those ravioli you made the other night - Oh, my God, they were good. I said to Bill, `I've got to learn to cook like Nancy.' ''

Directions: Follow the signs from Lake Washington Boulevard.

Clyde Beach

Marked by a small sign at Lake Washington Boulevard and 92nd Avenue Northeast, Clyde Beach is small and private. A grassy area gives way to a concrete sidewalk with steps leading into the postage-stamp-sized swimming area and dock.

One day last week, just 13 people sunned on the dock.

Water: Clear, with underwater vegetation.

Sand: None.

Noise level: Very quiet.

Shade: One pine tree.

Size: .75 acres; 171 feet of shoreline.

Access: Short, easy walk.

Overheard conversation: ``Look at my license. I look younger now than I did five years ago.''

Chism Park

Acres of grass and plenty of trees and picnic tables are here, even grilling sites. Swings provide children with another option when they're tired of the water. The medium-sized beach has gravel-like sand, a shallow area and swimming area bounded by a boardwalk and dock.

Water: Murky, with underwater vegetation.

Sand: It's gravel.

Noise level: Moderate.

Shade: Plenty.

Size: 18 acres; 930 feet of shoreline.

Access: A medium steep walk or longer sloped walk on paths.

Overheard conversation: ``Aunt Gerry, can we have some chips now?''

Directions: From Main Street, go south on 101st Avenue Southeast. The park is where 101st intersects 97th Avenue Southeast.

Chesterfield

Beach Park

Hidden down a long, steep windy path between two houses, it takes special effort to find Chesterfield, then another effort to make it down to the water. Definitely no access for the disabled..

There's a small lawn, swimming area, dock and cabana.

One afternoon last week, just three people used the park: two on the grass and a third on the dock.

Water: Clear.

Sand: None. Concrete steps lead to water.

Noise level: You can hear yourself tan.

Size: .61 acres; 60 feet of shoreline.

People: Frequently none.

Access: You need a Sherpa to make it back to the car.

Overheard conversation: ``Shake your head on me,'' said by a woman on the dock to the lifeguard, a high school friend who'd just gotten his hair wet.

Address: 1175 100th Ave. S.E. At the intersection of Southeast 25th Street and 97th Avenue Southeast.

Enatai Beach Park

Enatai isn't much to look at. The grass is dying. The phone company has put up big signs to mark a cable crossing. Two porta-potties are painted with the word ``Mints.'' And the I-90 East Channel bridge passes overhead.

Still, the park has much to recommend it.

Underneath the bridge is a gravel parking lot where your car stays nice and cool. The park boasts the clearest water of any of the city's beaches. It gets a lot of sun.

Water: Clear, weedless.

Sand: Gravel.

Noise level: Moderate.

Shade: Plenty under the bridge.

Size: 5 acres; 650 feet of shoreline.

Access: Easy.

People: Women, children, an aerobics instructor and math teacher.

Overheard conversation: ``I never took physics. Do you teach them, like, how to change fractions into decimals?''

Directions: Take 108th Avenue Southeast south until it dead-ends at the park.

Newcastle

Beach Park

Bellevue's largest, newest beach park. At Newcastle, they pay attention to the details. The restroom and lifeguard station aren't just serviceable, they're pleasing to the eye, built in a sort of Japanese pagoda/Northwest style with gray wood and blue siding and steeply pitched, aqua, metal roofs. Flowers bloom at the base of trees, which line the broad walk from the parking lot to the swimming area.

The park, built in 1988, won a design award from the Waterfront Center in Washington, D.C.

Newcastle has a big, level expanse of green lawn with picnic tables, benches and a play area complete with a small red locomotive. A large, railed dock extends from the shallow part of the swimming area - which has an odd, mossy bottom - out to the deep end.

Because of all the grass, Newcastle has been especially attractive to geese. Last week, the city had about 90 of them rounded up and shipped east of the Cascades.

Another problem is milfoil, underwater vegetation present in most Lake Washington waters, and abundant at Newcastle. There was so much of it, according to a lifeguard, that people avoided swimming in the deep end. On Monday, the city applied an herbicide, which meant no swimming for 24 hours.

Size: 27.5 acres, 1,500 feet of waterfront.

People: Mom, dad and the children.

Water: After herbicide treatment, should be clearer.

Overheard conversation: ``There's no swimming today?''

Directions: Take I-405 to the 112th Avenue Southeast exit. Turn right, follow the signs.