West Tiger 3, Section Line Trail, Nook Trail

Go to the trailhead around 9:45 and there was plenty of parking. No matter what time you show up, I would encourage you to try the parking lot even if you see folks parking on the side of the road and walking.

West Tiger 3 was in great shape and provides a steady incline to the summit. The trail was busy on this Labor Day, but definitely not overcrowded, there were probably 7 other groups at the summit when we got up there. It was a cloudless day, but there was a lot of haze in the sky so our views weren’t very good. Even on a good day, I think I would have been a little disappointed with the views compared to the work to get up the mountain. I am assuming you could see Lake Sammamish and possibly Bellevue, but not much else even on a crystal clear day.

As per the guidebook we were using (60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle Guide Book) we decided to use the Section Line Trail and Nook Trail to go back down the mountain to reduce the number of other folks we were seeing, have different views on the way down and get down faster. Having done it, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have trekking poles and healthy knees as it was super steep and the footing was a mix of loose rocks and powder. My hiking partners were both in tennis shoes and didn’t have trekking poles. They had a heck of a time with the first mile of decent due to the steep incline and poor footing with each of them falling a couple times and having to hang on to trees for dear life at other times. I had hiking boots and trekking poles and the decent was still pretty tricky. There are signs that state the trail isn’t maintained and while it isn’t overgrown, it is very difficult. We didn’t time it, but I am pretty sure it took us longer to get down than going up even though the distance was shorter. I would advise anyone else wanting to take this route to reverse the loop compared to how we did it and tackle the steep incline of the Section Line trail going up and take it easy going down using West Tiger #3 (there were some other folks that summited after us that came from this direction so it is possible).

Overall, Tiger Mountain #3 is OK for exercise, but you probably could find a better bang for your buck if you are looking for a view or solitude.