Enatai Beach Park trails

Location: Bellevue

Length: One-mile round-trip to Mercer Island; about a half-mile round-trip to Mercer Slough Nature Park.

Level of difficulty: Flat-to-moderate paved trail.

Setting: While not exactly a quiet location, Bellevue Parks created a gateway park out of this patch of shoreline directly beneath the Interstate 90 bridge. The Cascade Canoe and Kayak Center is here, making it a perfect base from which to explore the eastern shore of Lake Washington by water.

Across the road, a paved pedestrian/bike path loops up to parallel Interstate 90 a half-mile west to Mercer Island, and a third of a mile east to Mercer Slough Nature Park. Enatai (pronounced EN'-a-tie) is at the western end of Bellevue's Lake-to-Lake trail, which runs through a necklace of parks from Lake Washington to Lake Sammamish. This trail is also part of the larger Mountains-to-Sound Greenway, which heads east from downtown Seattle over the Cascades.

Highlights: Besides walking paths, this area offers good canoeing or kayaking on a water "trail." Follow the shore south of the park to the entrance of Mercer Slough. A larger waterway before the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1916 lowered the waters of the lake by more than eight feet, a paddle up this now-modest slough takes you into the center of the Mercer Slough wetlands. Look for otter slides on the bank, and keep an eye out for kingfishers. Bellevue Parks (425-452-6881) runs popular naturalist-guided canoe trips from Enatai Park up the slough during the summer. Cascade Canoe and Kayak Center is open March to October. Call for hours. 425-637-8838.

Facilities: Restrooms, water, phone, pier and swimming beach (no lifeguards).

Restrictions: No pets near beach. Kayaks and canoes may be launched from the park's sandy beach (no motorized boats).

Directions: From Interstate 90 (eastbound or westbound), take Exit 9, Bellevue Way (from Interstate 405, north or south, Bellevue Way is the first exit before you actually get onto I-90). After coming off the exit ramp, take the first left onto 113th Avenue Northeast. Follow this street as it curves up and around to parallel the interstate, and turn left on 108th Avenue Northeast, which deadends at the park.

- Cathy McDonald Special to The Seattle Times Cathy McDonald is coauthor with Stephen Whitney of "Nature Walks In and Around Seattle," with photographs by James Hendrickson (The Mountaineers, second edition, 1997).