![]() ![]() Perched on the western shore of Whidbey Island with views of the Olympic Mountains and Strait of San Juan de Fuca, Ebey’s Landing is our favorite Washington coastal hike. Start: End of Cook Road to the Prairie Overlook trailhead ( map) Show up at 11am and you may see your neighbors and coworkers up there too. By doing this you will avoid the vast majority of people. ![]() If you can depart your Seattle home by 6am, grab a double latte, and hit the road, you can be at the trailhead by 7:30am. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do Mt. Even on a blustery February weekday we came across 20-30 hikers battling snow and ice along the way. Everest of Seattle-we’ve hiked it on a clear summer Sunday and literally been in a line of 30-40 hikers near the top. This hike is only 5.4 miles roundtrip but relatively steep and therefore intermediate in difficulty. You rise with views of the North Cascades and classic alpine terrain, finally curling around the summit for huge expanses including the Olympic Peninsula, Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, and Mt. Located on the Mountain Loop Highway just over an hour north of downtown, this hike offers big-time scenery quickly and will not disappoint. But you can’t knock the proximity to Seattle-both Little Si and Mount Si are accessed via exit 32 on I-90, less than a 45-minute drive from downtown.įor a moderate one-day summit from Seattle, it’s tough to find a better hike than the one up Mt. It’s not that Mount Si isn’t a really nice hike, it’s just that we think there are better options for that kind of effort (see Granite Mountain below). Mount Si is a more involved day hike at a distance of 8 miles roundtrip and with an elevation gain of around 3,150 feet. The top has good views of North Bend, the Upper Snoqualmie Valley, and Mount Si hovering above to the north. The forested path is excellent and there are a number of interesting rock formations along the way (it’s also very popular for climbing). We like Little Si best, which is a 5-mile roundtrip excursion with around 1,200 feet in elevation gain. The easy access to Little Si and Mount Si make them two of the highly-trafficked day hikes in the Seattle area. For tougher hikes near the city, popular Little Si and Mount Si (below) across the valley are similar but slightly more challenging. Before or after the hike, the lake itself is a great place to relax, walk, swim, and fish. The path is steadily uphill but never overly difficult, which means that the ledge is crowded on weekends and sunny summer days (it’s a great option for watching the sunset after work or as a trail run). The hike starts off on the shores of Rattlesnake Lake and cuts through a series of switchbacks that rise 1,000 feet over 1.5 miles. Enjoy!įor a short and relatively easy day hike, it doesn’t get much better than a gently-sloping trail through old growth forest, a view over Snoqualmie Pass and the Southern Cascades, and a trailhead only 40 minutes east of Seattle. Our picks for the best day hikes near Seattle below run the gamut from easy and popular trails just outside of the city to some of the toughest day hikes around. The trails, many of which pass through beauitful Northwest forests with snow-capped peaks in the distance, are well kept and offer challenges for all levels of experience. Rainier, hiking Washington’s diverse landscapes is an experience unlike any other. From the peaks of the Cascades, across the coastal rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula, to towering volcanoes like Mt. ![]()
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