I am not sure how others see this, but the West Access Trail to Squak Mt. is nearly impossible to find from SR 900 or once you find it to park near.

The trail head is about 0.5 miles north of the Wilderness Creek Trail for Cougar Mt on SR 900 and can be seen if you are walking to road or know were to look. I saw the trail head for the first time last Spring on loop hike that took me between Bear Ridge and Wilderness Creek on Cougar Mt. When I tried to find the trail again on Saturday, I spent the better part of an hour looking only to have traffic too thick to slow down and look for a place to pull off the road.

In any event I drove to the Bullitt Access Trail and walked it and the Coal Mines trail to the West Access and down to the trail head. There are 4 or 5 blow downs on the West Access trail and a moderately tricky creek crossing near the junction with the Coal Mines Trail. The walk is worth it! Manning is correct in describing the hike (a loop hike in his book on walks around Puget Sound) as a classic for the Issaquah Alps. The trees are tall and relatively old for the Seattle area. The hike takes you through the best country in the Alps I have seen.

After doing this 2.0 + miles of walking, I went via the Bullitt Fire Place trail to Central Peak and down via the Central Peak Trail and Bullitt Access trail about 6.5 miles total. There is a fair amount of blow down on all of the trails and more likely with the Sunday storm.

Trails are not muddy at this point and there was no snow on Saturday but it looks like there will be snow in these hills next weekend. My only suggestion for this hike is to ask if someone could put a sign on SR 900 noting the trail head. I wonder is the trail head on State land or is the ""road/trail"" on private property. Did see a few folks on the trail so my difficulties in finding the trail head might be the exception.