Miles: 13,745 acre of trails
Low Point/High Point: 150ft/3,005ft
Map: National Geographic Issaquah Alps
Favorite Eats After Hike: Garlic Crush, Agave Cocina, North Bend Bar & Grill, Chang Thai & Pho,
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike details:
Nestled in the area between SR 18 and I-90 known as the Issaquah Alps, Tiger Mountain State Park offers hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. The Tiger Summit Trailhead provides access to a dense trail network with views of the Tiger Mountain State Forest and the surrounding Snoqualmie Corridor. There are 3 main trailheads for hikers in Tiger Mountain State Park: Tiger Summit, West and East Tiger. There is a thru hike called the Tiger Mountain Trail that runs the across Tiger Mountain that is 7.5 miles in length from the High Point Trailhead (I-90, Exit 20) to Tiger Mountain Road (no official trailhead).
There are 6 possible “peaks” to attain and the most crowded trail leads to the once forested summit of West Tiger #3, with a panoramic view of Seattle and points to the south and east. It is a 6.2-mile hike with an elevation change of about 2,000ft. The nearby peaks of West Tiger #2 and West Tiger #1 provide essentially the same view but possibly smaller crowds. Cable and Section Line are known for their steep grade while many of the trails follow old logging roads. The great thing is that although the parking lot may be full, there are enough trails to wander without feeling overcrowded!
My trip reports:
7/5/2021, my GAIA
Not wanting to drive far today, we did an 8 mile lollipop loop on Tiger to get some exercise in. Starting at the High Point/Lingering Trailhead (crossing through the yellow, closed DNR gate and following the road first), we wove up to West Tiger #2 on the Tiger Mountain Trail, across to West Tiger #3, down Cable Line to a side trail to K-3, down on the TMT again and out on High Point/Lingering. There were a few new signs for the TMT, last time they all seemed to be old wooden painted ones.
Despite the ugly of trees marked for logging on the back side of West Tiger #2, our hike was timed with the low clouds lifting and sun filtered through the trees creating mesmerizing dapples and rays.
Our favorite part (aside from not a lot of people) was the newish structure, Murat’s Bridge, along the High Point Trail. It truly stands out and what a nice memorial by his loved ones.
There were Columbia Lilies near the summit, ghost pipe near the trailhead and all sorts of ferns (love the Western Maidenhair!). The Cable Line was just as gnarly as I remember it, best done going up than down for sure, oops.
5/23/2018, my GAIA
Another after work training hike and my first time officially on Cable Line (I think I may have strayed a bit onto it on a Tiger Mountain wander a few years ago). It lives up to its reputation and although I didn’t set any records, I’m sure, it made for one heck of a workout. As you can expect from a fairly unmaintained trail, it was rutted, trenched, braided and eroding just about everywhere.
There weren’t as many people as I had thought there would be and I was proud only 5 other people passed me going up. We took West Tiger #3 down to be nice to our knees, the rocks and debris on Cable Line would make for an easy slip. We didn’t linger long at the top (not much for views except for a hawk overhead) and the biting flies were relentless.
There was a nasty tree down across the trail about 2/3rds up. Passable underneath or to the side but it’s a serious side bind wedged into a few leaners. Hopefully that thing doesn’t go when someone is nearby. Since it is my first time, I’m not sure how long it’s been there.
Also, the mileage to the top was 1.5 miles to the junction West Tiger and 1.9 to the summit, according to GAIA anyway.
5/16/2018
We spent the evening traveling up High Point to Lingering a few miles after work and enjoyed having the trail to ourselves except for a few trail runners as we hiked out. The trail was in good shape, a little muddy in spots, and the usual deteriorating downed logs across the trail with steps cut out. The fern fronds are mostly extended and the Devil’s Club was standing proudly but thankfully a distance off the trail. The bugs and spiderwebs were out and it was fairly muggy but it felt good to be out on the trail after a day in the office.
1/30/2016
We originally were going to head to a snowshoe down by Rainier but the weather was not supposed to be conducive to views so we decided just to spend the day down lower and chose a loop on Tiger Mountain. This was only my third time on Tiger, so hopefully I got the right labels for the loop we took. We parked at the Preston Trailhead off SR-18 and started hiking up around 8:15am or so. Most of the first part of the day seemed to be on the road, which was a nice warm up. We saw a mountain bikers headed down but no other hikers. There was a little snow on the upper part of the Tiger Mountain Road and on some sections of Railroad Grade, East Tiger and Paw Print but nothing to worry about (just watch the slick spots on the bridges).
The Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT) section had a fair amount of blow down and we only saw a few trail runners through here. Overall, it was a nice quiet day on Tiger. The sun did peek out and we didn’t have any rain. The only excitement was about 300 yards before we arrived back down at the parking lot at 2:15pm, someone had decided to try and walk across a log over the creek right there (about 8 feet in the air) and he slipped right off only to need the EMS to come and help get him out. Thank goodness it was so close because he and the person he was with didn’t appear to anything but a bottle of Coke with them. Also, this was my first time seeing the “Predator” bike trail that looked fairly new that runs out of the trailhead. That thing looked insane!!
1/2/2016
This was one of the earliest hikes my now hubby and I did as dates and going in January meant the Section Line trail had snow starting before you get to the Railroad Trail (which was also snow covered). We only went that far as we didn’t start until 3pm. I just had trail runners on but put micro spikes on for the trip down on the snow sections as it was very icy. Looked like most folks were walking off trail on the surrounding snow.
1/18/2015
Tiger Mountain made for a great midway point when Elizabeth and I wanted to meet up to hike with her coming up from Renton. It could have been that it was a stormy day or that the Seahawks were hosting a playoff game in the Seattle but we had the mountain to ourselves as we wandered around parts of the Tiger Mountain Trail, Railroad Grade and West Tiger #3.
Directions: For West Tiger (most of my trips), go east from Issaquah on I-90 to exit 20. Turn right and then right again. You can park along the road or go to the end to a large parking lot with privy. The parking lot needs a Discover Pass. For the Preston Trailhead, drive east on I-90 from Seattle to exit 22. Turn right onto SE 82nd and then right again onto Preston Way. Look for a trailhead with no parking on the lefthand side of the road.
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