In our first tour, we looked closely at the winding steps near 76th Street and Park Lane South.  In our second tour, we looked at the steps just behind the Mary Whalen Playground that end on Forest Park Drive, right next to the Oak Ridge House.  As we finished that set of steps -- which was one, long, straight staircase -- there was a small set of steps awaiting us directly across Forest Park Drive.  Here's a crude map which shows the overhead view:

The first two tours are labeled "1" and "2" -- today's tour is indicated with the Yellow X's.  As stated previously, this staircase begins on Forest Park Drive directly across from the Oak Ridge House.  And, as you can see below, you can see it from the top of the steps we covered in our last report. 

So where does this staircase lead?  Let's find out . . .

It begins with two series of steps.  The front of the steps are built directly into the hill.  And on either side, the hill has been fortified by walls constructed out of wood.   

Once you get to the top of these steps you find a path which wanders off into the woods.  As you can see, the path and its' surroundings are fairly untended, with lots of interesting overgrowth.   

As you get a little further along -- maybe twenty or thirty yards -- you reach what appears to be a fork in the road.  The real path veers off to the left, while a natural trail heads off towards the right.  We wandered down the trail to the right for a bit - but it seemed to go further into the woods and we decided to save that for another day.  We'd already climbed two sets of steps, climbed over two walls, and we had yet another large staircase waiting for us after this.   

By this time we were looking forward to finding a nice bench to have a little sit down.  It was pretty warm that day, as well, and we were regretting that we'd only brought one small bottle of water.  But we really enjoyed this path -- there were a few worn out spots, and some cracks here and there, but nothing dangerous.  The footing was very good and stable.  There were a few streetlamps on the path and we are assuming that they light this path at night -- but I'm not sure we'd want to walk through here in the evening hours.  We're sort of scared of the dark. 

Very quickly, we reached the end of the path -- it's not a long walk at all.  Here's another streetlamp.  You see that wire strung through the woods?  We saw that a few times during our tour of the various steps.  This wire runs into the Golf Course.         

You can see how low these wires are hanging -- so we were assuming (hoping) they weren't electric wires.  Perhaps they are phone wires?  Ether way, it seems a little haphazard and careless.  Below you can see the Golf Course across from the end of the path.  And there, at the end of the path, is another set of steps leading to . . . Forest Park Drive.  So, it appears that this path is just a nice little shortcut through the woods. 

And here is the end of the path -- and another set of steps leading down to Forest Park Drive 

As we said earlier, we were looking forward to sitting down - but when we hit Forest Park Drive there were none to be seen.  Funny, we've driven down that road a million times before and it seemed like there was a bench every fifteen feet.  But on this day, right when we wanted one, we couldn't see one.  And by this time we were out of water.

And here is a picture of the steps at the end of the path from across Forest Park Drive.  (Note:  Since that day, we've driven down this road again, and there is a bench about 15 feet to the right of this picture.  But it was hidden behind the curve.) 

The total number of steps here was 33.  The first set contained 13 steps, and the steps at the end of the path contained 20.  And, as you can see below, you begin and end on Forest Park Drive -- this is just a nice little shortcut.

 

From here, out of water and without a bench in sight, we staggered on towards the next set of steps . . . 

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com 

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