Snoqualmie Ridge Trails

revised 9/20/2021

The September 2013 Metro reorganization was mostly not a good one for rural bus routes, but one benefit of the change is improved access to the new Snoqualmie Ridge development, which offers a couple of fine trails. In particular, the Deep Creek Trail is a gem and worth the long bus ride from Issaquah. You will have to plan you bus trips carefully due to the limited number of Metro 208 runs.

Getting There

From downtown Seattle, ride Sound Transit 545 to the Issaquah Transit Center. There, transfer to Metro 208 (caution: sparse schedule) and make the long ride to the intersection of Snoqualmie Parkway and Douglas Avenue SE in the Snoqualmie Ridge development.

The Hike

The Silent Creek Trail begins on the northwest side of the intersection of Douglas Ave SE and Snoqualmie Parkway. First it follows the parkway west for a bit, then heads into a narrow system of greenbelts squeezed between the Lake Alice neighborhood and the west edge of Snoqualmie Ridge. Ponds, creek, and wetlands along the trail make for a pleasant walk.

After about a mile, the trail ends on SE Carmichael Street. Walk east on Carmichael two blocks to Azalea Park, where you find the start of the Deep Creek Trail, which immediately begins a descent down a densely forested hillside. After dropping several hundred feet, the trail levels out and makes an up-and-down traverse along the hillside, crossing several ravines along the way. The lushly vegetated forest along the trail is quite pretty. Two side trails drop down to the paved Preston-Snoqualmie Trail, which you can use to extend the hike if you wish. The Preston-Snoqualmie Trail ends at a vista point with a distant view of Snoqualmie Falls, a worthwhile side trip.

Eventually the Deep Creek trail climbs back up to Snoqualmie Ridge where there is a fine vista point overlooking the Snoqualmie River's broad valley and the distant Cascade Mountains. The trail soon reaches a power line corridor, which it follows over a hill top and on down to its end at Eagle Lake Drive, about 2.5 miles from the trail's start at Azalea Park.

From here, hike on Eagle Lake Drive around the namesake pond to SE Ridge St. Follow Bus stops for Metro 208 are located farther south on Ridge. The entire loop hike as described above is about 5 miles in all. If you have time, you can explore trails around the Snoqualmie Ridge Community Park.

Getting back

Ride Metro 208 to Issaquah Transit Center. Transfer to Sound Transit 545 to get back to Seattle.

One of several bridges on the Deep Creek Trail