Frink Park trail

Location: Seattle.

Length: About a 3/4-mile loop (path near waterfall leads north to Leschi Park).

Level of difficulty: Level-to-steep gravel trail and steps.

Setting: The upper entrance to this forested park hangs at the edge of a ridge of glacial rock debris overlooking Lake Washington. A newspaper clipping of an old photograph currently at the trailhead kiosk shows the old cable-car trestle bridge that spanned the ravine during the late 1880s over to Leschi attractions. The park was donated in 1906 by John M. Frink, who lived in a mansion above the park and had a multi-faceted career as a schoolteacher, businessman, park commissioner and senator. Included in the Olmsted brothers' landscaping plan for Seattle parks, Frink Park gained many amenities for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, including a bridge over the ravine, dams with pools, paths and benches.

Highlights: This largely deciduous park became sadly overgrown after its early glory days, until the Friends of Frink Park went to work in the 1990s. Volunteers cleared out invasive plants and planted many native species. The trail loop, short side trails and numerous stairways that allow access to the flanks of this steep ravine are a well-drained marvel.

Facilities: None.

Restrictions: Leash and scoop laws in effect for pets.

Directions: From Interstate 90, take the Rainier Avenue South exit, heading north. Turn right on South Jackson Street, and go to where it intersects with 31st Avenue South. Park on the street; from the kiosk the most obvious trailhead is a few yards to the north (trail loops around to re-emerge from the ravine just south of the kiosk). Take the trail down the hill to cross the stream at the 6-foot-high waterfall, cross Lake Washington Boulevard, pass through a rhododendron grove, cross the stream again at the old rowboat, cross the boulevard again, and climb back up the hill to the kiosk.

For more information: www.FrinkPark.org, www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/frinkpark.htm or 206-684-4075.

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