Trip Reports

Hiked today with a good friend, Pandora. She let me pick the trail. I decided on Cougar Mt. Red Town Trailhead. We hiked 4 hours total and did a good loop To coal creek falls then far country lookout and falls (not much of a view or falls). Coal Creek was much better. Then headed back via De Leo Wall Trail, we skipped the viewpoint didn't look too grand. Hopefully we didn't miss something wonderful there. Then we stopped in the Meadow restoration area and saw some beautiful lillies that were flagged. Great day to be out, could not have asked for better weather. Not too many people on the trail. Well signed area with maps at the trailhead. Lots of history in this area, we even got a mini lesson from some guy on the trail about the coal miners settlement, very interesting. He was very proud of ""his area"" as he lived close by. We saw young, old, horses, dogs all enjoying the trails today. I will be back to explore more of this area.

I took this 7.5 to 8.0 mile loop in Cougar Mt. Park as a tune up hike for several planned summer hikes including a traverse of Rattlesnake Ridge.

Saturday turned out warm and pleasant and a great day to be out. My allergies which had been bothering me did not affect the hike which took about 3.5 hours with two breaks at Longs Peak and Far Country Look Out.

Lots of people were out with pets, trail running, or their children. The most notable parts of the hike were low land flowers and a deer family on the Cave Hole trail. The attached photos are of Skunk Cabbage near Doughty Falls and Phlox on the Coal Creek Falls Trail. Coal Creek Falls were as stunning as I have ever seen them.

All an all a great trip, with about 1200 to 1400 feet of elevation gain and loss. Trails were generally dry with some mud holes particularly on the horse use trails.

Sunday's weather wasn't quite as glorious as Saturday, but I had free time for a hike and was looking for something close-in, so Cougar Mountain it was. If you're looking for a nice outing in the foothills, Cougar doesn't have quite the crowds that Tiger Mountain has. And you can get to the trail by bus or bike, making it an especially ""green"" hike! See the end of the report for more details.

The maze of trails is confusing at Cougar, so be sure to pick up one of the printed maps at the trailhead or download one from here before you go.

I started at the Red Town Trailhead just off the Newcastle Golf Club Road. I started up the Wildside Trail (W1) with a brief detour to the old mine shaft and kiosk on the coal mining history of the are just a few hundred yards up the trail. Then continuing up W1, saw plenty of wildflowers in bloom right now. Saw my first trilliums of the season, plus evergreen violet, red-flowering currant and miner's lettuce. The bleeding heart should be in full bloom in about a week.

I then turned off to the De Leo Wall Trail (W9) and the forest changed from western red cedar, ferns and alder to salal, Douglas-fir and madrona. The viewpoint was a pleasant spot for lunch although I preferred the view of the madronas and pink flowers of the currant bushes to the vantage on Renton and the nearby suburbs.

Heading back down, I branched off on the Indian Trail (W7) and took a right uphill on the Quarry Trail (C6). Then it was left on the Coal Creek Falls Trail (C4), to the falls, which are running quite nicely now. Then it was down the Cave Hole Trail (C3) to the trailhead. All told, the hike was about 2 hours and approximately 5-6 miles of hiking. Trail was in good shape, only one blowdown and a few patches of mud.

And the neat thing was: I didn't burn a drop of gas to get to the trailhead. This is a great hike to bike or bus to!

From Seattle, you can take the Sound Transit 550 to the South Bellevue Park & Ride, then connect to the M240, which heads out on Coal Creek Parkway. Request a stop at Coal Creek and 119th. You'll have to hike an additional 4 miles round trip on the Coal Creek Trail to get the Red Town Trailhead. Or pop you bike on the bus and complete the trip along Newcastle Golf Club Road to the trailhead.

Biking from Seattle requires about 2 hours one-way and it's a very pleasant ride. I found my way to the paved I-90 trail, crossed the lake, then headed south on the Lake Washington Trail. Cross over I-405 on Lake Washington Blvd. and head up over the hill on SE 68th St. Take the Newcastle Golf Club Road (which becomes Newcastle-Coal Cree Road) to the Red Mountain Trailhead. On the return, head back on Newcastle Golf Club Road to Coal Creek Parkway, then you can take the wide bike lane all the way back down the hill to the Lake Washington bike trail and I-90. If don't have a copy of the King County bike map, pick up a copy at any King County library or print sections from it here. Total, it was about a 6-hour journey and it felt good not to add a single drop of carbon to the atmosphere!

Coal Creek Falls is one of the highlights of Cougar Mt. Park. I have often hiked from AA Peak and Red Town trail heads in loops that include these falls. The opening of the Sky Country trail head offers new opportunities to loop through the falls area as well as using a paved parking area as part of the trail head.

The loop I chose on this day went from Sky Country via the Old Man Trail to the Cave Hole Trail then via the By Pass Trail to Fred’s Railroad and from Fred’s RR to the Quarry Trail and then via the Coal Creek Falls Trail back the the Cave Holes Trail with the final leg of the trip on the Nike Horse Trail.

The trails were all in good shape with no mud holes but with recent horse activity and the normal deposits from said activity on the By Pass and Nike Horse trails in particular. I did not see the horse or horses but the signs of passing were fresh. Other than this there were no problems on the trail and the weather was superb! Sun and mild temperatures. I did not see people on the trails from Fred’s Railroad until I came to the falls were a young family was eating lunch.

Trip length about 3 miles with about 400 feet elevation gain.

Two of us and a big black fuzzy dog did the loop from the Red Town trailhead to Coal Creek Falls and back down through Quarry and Red Town meadow. The trails were in good shape, but there were many frozen muddy patches that were easy to walk on. When it warms up, there will be a lot of mud for a few days.

The falls were gorgeous, with roaring water and a lot of ice to catch the overcast light. It started snowing while we were at the falls, and continued for the rest of the loop (making the trail slippery). There did not seem to be enough snow to stick for more than a day. There were occasional ice patches across the entire trail that were very slick and caused all of us (including the dog) to go for a little slide!

Overall, great hike in good condition -- this is a perfect time of year for this area!

Coal Creek Falls is running nicely. The trail to the falls has some bad mud holes that need to be drained. I noticed some new piles of gravel and turnpike structures, so it appears that work is in progress to improve the trail.

I walked several of the City of Bellevue Parks trails post the early December flooding to see what the water had done. Both Coal Creek Park and Lakemont Park have significant flood damage. The trail at Coal Creek Park is now temporarily closed from the Red Town Trailhead to Coal Creek Pkwy due to bridges out and trail washouts (the Cougar Mountain side is still open). It was amazing to see the power of water. Part of the trail is passable despite being closed, however there is no access to Coal Creek Pkwy without a couple of bridgeless creek crossings. Peggy’s Trail at Lakemont Park is passable down to Lewis Creek on both sides of the drainage. The trail running parallel to the creek at the bottom of the drainage is completely gone. It is now steep slopes on both stream banks leading to creek bed. It’s really interesting to see where the creek has incised through a few small land slides along the former trail. I wouldn’t recommend trying to traverse this trail unless you have chest waders. I ended up walking through the creek for about ¼ mile to get back. I had anticipated the damage and brought chest waders. The Parks Dept said that they hope to have the trails repaired by the end of the summer of ’08. To check conditions of the closed trails the number posted on the signs is 425-452-6855.

Early dismissal from work allowed for a short loop hike in the Alps. I chose a loop to include Coal Creek Falls. Starting on the Wildside Trail, I noted the Coal Creek was running normally, much better than when I was last in the area. Some mud on Wildside but less than normal. Wildside to Quarry and then to Coal Creek Falls was almost mud free! Coal Creek Falls had a good amount of water coming down making a nice place to take a break. Then back to walking to the car. Dry weather and sun made for a great 1.5 hour or so walk.

After a day at Mt. Rainier I needed to stretch my legs closer to home after a visit to the dentist. I decided to do a short loop in Cougar Mt. Park which took about 2 hours total and covered about 5 miles.

The trails, including the new ones in the Sky Country Region were all in excellent shape. The Military Road trail can be hard to find when driving 166th but a new sign will help guide people to it from 166th.

The new Sky Country trail head is a great place to start a hike as the road and parking lot are paved and the trail head now allows easier access to a number of the central trails in Cougar Mt. Park.

I did not get to the Primrose Overlook, which must be on the short loop trail. Other than this, the hike was pleasant and relatively quite on this day.

One note Coal Creek Falls has almost no water flowing over it. This is the driest I have seen the area. But I normally do not hike these trails in the height of summer.

I wanted to work off some Christmas calories on Wednesday and decided to look at Coal Creek Falls after the rain storm on Tuesday. To my surprise there was lots of snow on Cougar Mt. at low elevations, starting from the Freeway exit to Lakemont Blvd.

The trails were slushy and wet in places but not difficult to navigate with the exception of one blow down on the Quarry Trail which just needed to be pushed down to go over it. The snow and light through the trees was quite nice. This was a first for me in my 8 or so years of hiking this area (lots of snow, mild temperatures for walking, and few people on the trails.)

Coal creek falls was in full force from the recent rain and surrounded by snow on trees and ground. The overall loop took less than 2 hours and proved to be a nice walk.

After viewing the North Fork falls a few days earlier I decided to walk to Coal Creek Falls.

These falls and the creek were running high with lots of water coming down. The trails are in good shape with some mud but not as much as one might expect after 6 to 7 days of rain.

The attached photo gives a good idea of water levels in Cougar Mt. Park. I noted creeks running in places I had never seen or heard them.

This was supposed to be a very brief outing to test some recent footwear updates, but we got carried away, and zigged around for almost seven miles. First time I have been here. This trail system is reminiscent of an ikea floor plan, but fortunately much less peopled on Sundays in February, and with much better signage.

The leaves are starting to come out on deciduous huckleberries, and there are a lot of them, here. What I think is Oemleria cerasiformis (Indian-plum, Osoberry) is leaving out on southern slopes, and we even saw one flower. The sun peaked out occasionally, and not a drop of rain, but it still looks very much like winter.

There were a few very small blow-downs, but not worrisome enough to check as a 'problem'.

After enduring months of seeing Coal Creek Falls as nothing more than a trickle, it's invigorating to see it at a more robust flow than at our last visit, in September. Weather: chilly, around 40 and falling, persistent mist, turning to steady light drizzle.

We began about 9 a.m. from the Anti-Aircraft Peak Trailhead; three hikers were coming out as we went in, but very few others were encountered, thanks to the threat of snowstorm looming later in the day.

Entry trails were in fairly good shape, for December. Further along AA Ridge it got a bit boggy and slippery, but easily passable, and my feet stayed dry in tennis shoes. Most deciduous foliage is gone, of course, so Cougar's heavily-canopied trails are actually brighter now, in spite of gloomy skies. Glistening Oregon grape and sword fern were the dominant greenery; the ""grape"" is crowding the narrower trails quite a bit in many places. Many fungi present, but I'm embarrassingly ignorant of mycology. The only wildlife we observed were the usual juncos, chickadees and wrens; not even towhees or squirrels.

We were very pleased to see good flow in the East Fork of Coal Creek where the Clay Pit bypass crosses. Cave Hole Road is not in very good condition: in most places only one rut was passable, the other either too eroded or too muddy. Several clumps of comfrey were evident on the Falls trail -- I hadn't noticed them there before....is that just because of less foliage now, or is this a climate-related change?

Coal Creek Falls were very nice, probably about 10 to 20 percent of maximum flow. These falls are a wonderful place to sit, rest, meditate; and now while the flow is only moderate it's even a good place for conversation.

We returned the same way we entered. I was pleased to make it all the way up the Cave Hole Road grade non-stop; a tough walking hill. We got back to our vehicle just as the weather took a turn for the worse.

For a moderately-long but quiet, easy hike to a nice destination, this is hard to beat, any time of year.

What a lot of trails for such a short hike! I covered about 5 miles of wet soggy trail in Cougar Mt. park on Friday. The hike was in solitude but the trails are very wet with standing water and mud-holes.

The purpose was to see Coal Creek Falls in winter and the hike was worth it. Heading from the AA Peak Trail head I walked down Lost Beagle to the Klondike Swamp, then via a connector to Cave Hole, down to the Coal Creek Falls trail. Most of these trails are in good if slightly muddy condition. The falls trail is in excellent shape and you can hear the water roaring over the falls as you get near.

After a snack and some photos, I continued on to the Quarry Trail, then back via Fred's Railroad, AA Ridge to my car.

I saw only one other person on the hike and no wildlife. The rain was constant and I was soaked but happy on getting back to my car.

Hike took about 3 hours.

I went on a little jaunt to Couger mountain to see how the trails and waterfalls were doing after Tuesday's deluge. The weather was strange that day; warm, humid, and misty, reminding me of hiking in Hawaii. Coal Creek Falls was well worth the trip; with the huge volume of water going over it, the falls resembled a mini-Niagra. Mossy Doughty Falls, perhaps the prettiest falls in the park, was flowing quite nicely, too.

The spot where the Deciever Trail crosses the creek near Doughty Falls is one of the pleasant places in the park. There's a pool of water next to a hollowed-out cedar log, which the trail cleverly uses as a bridge. Above, autumn-golden maples provide a colorful canopy.

Despite all the rain, the Couger Mountain trails are in amazingly good shape, thanks to all the work by the WTA and others. There's spots on the Quarry trail with water running on the tread, and a few blowdowns here and there. You can hike in low top sneakers on most of the trail system and your feet will hardly get damp.

The Cougar Mtn Trail from the Red Town trailhead is a perfect after work stroll. The refurbished meadow on the old early 1900s baseball field on the site of what was once an outlying suburb of the coal mining community of Newcastle offers a touching contemplation of change and regeneration. Every trail intersection is clearly marked and maps are able to be picked up at the trailhead. Excluding the occasional evidence of horses the trail itself could not be in better condition - one could almost hike it in street shoes. We had the thrill of being able to listen hard to a large animal ( bear, deer?) just past the Shy Bear swamp without catching sight of it. After harvesting some angel wing mushrooms from a fallen log ( and vowing to return for a serious mushroom hunt in the fall) we made our to the Coal Creek Falls and took a scramble provided with conveniently placed handholds of tree roots to a perch overlooking it. From there the whisper of water and a glance of an Anna's Hummingbird, quicker than a bee. Absolutely no one else was around. If there were bugs we didn't notice them.

With all the recent snow, I'd figure I'd tromp out to Coal Creek Falls to attempt to get a good picture (the previous 4 tries turned out awful). And with all the recent snow, there was more mud at than you could shake a stick at. Coal Creek is full at the falls now, so while we have clear skies, it's a good destination (though there is...or was still quite a bit of snow around the falls). I originally intented on doing a loop from the Cave Holes trail to the falls and then out via the Red Town trail, but IT WAS GONE!!! There is supposed to be a short connector between the falls and the Quarry Trail, but after walking for 1/4 mile and two switchbacks that I never remembered seeing before, I had to wonder what happened...so I went back the way I came.

After I also poked my nose at North Fork Falls just down the S+WW RR trail leading downstream. Nice flow now. Also, had to kill a few frames and some daylight, so I poped over to Weowna Park in between 148th and W LK Sammamish Pkwy. It's a thin park off of NE 166th (I think). I found a small waterfall there on the outlet of Phantom Lake once a while back, so I returned to investigate. And I found a beautifully developed trail system around the canyon, a pair of waterfalls (very small), one even with a viewing deck, connecting trails between W LK Sam Pkwy and 166th. A great park. Check it out if you've got a few hours some day. Good place for kids.

Probably the most challenging of the Cougar Mountain Trailheads, the Wilderness Creek Trailhead offers secluded hiking only 5 minutes out of Issaquah. Take SR 900 south from I-90. The trailhead is on your right, about 5-7 miles from Newport Wy NW. Maps are usually available at the trailhead.

The trailhead begins with a large elevation gain that puts you on top of Cougar with many options on where to branch out from. I went to the Coal Creek Falls. Right now the trail suffers from a lack of maintenance, winter blow down, mud, and water are your enemies here. Nothing that couldn't be hopped or walked through though. Trail is normally well kept.

The Coal Creek Falls area has a newly constructed foot bridge, and is a great destination for a somewhat secluded lunch on Cougar Mountain. Other trail heads on Cougar offer for days of endless exploring and hiking.

See you on the trail. EJS.

Coal Creek Falls Deceiver Far Country Long View Peak Shy
Bear Wilderness Cliffs Wilderness Creek Wilderness Peak - Issaquah Alps - There were many windfalls along the route, particularly in areas more than a mile from the trailhead and on lesser used trails. The Wilderness Creek and Wilderness Cliff Trails are in good condition. There used to be a summit register on Wilderness Peak (why, I can't guess), but it's gone now. There is no view here. The Wilderness Peak Trail is in good condition to its terminus at Shy Bear Pass. No bears, they must be shy. The Long View Peak Trail wanders on a level alignment to its end at Long View Peak. Much better views here. The Deceiver Trail has quite a few windfalls as it descends into the Cabbage Creek watershed. There is a spur trail to Doughty Falls just after crossing Cabbage Creek. Don't expect anything spectacular out of these falls. The Shy Bear Trail is a fairly level run from its junction with the Deceiver Trail to its end at Far Country Lookout. Nice views here too. You can see exciting Renton (whoopee!). The really good stuff is over in the Olympics though, which can also be seen. Then a rather quick descent down the Far Country Trail to its end at Indian Trail, which is actually an old road. Indian Trail is muddy in spots. There is a bootpath off trail to a falls on Long Marsh Creek. I've named them Angus McFergus McTavish Dundee Falls after some guy I saw on Captain Kangaroo about 37 years ago. Somehow I don't think the committee for geographic place names is going to buy that one. Quarry Trail is also an old road that climbs fairly steeply. Coal Creek Falls is 0.1 miles down Coal Creek Falls Trail and it is worth seeing. The Quarry Trail should be renamed Quagmire Trail as it is very muddy east of its junction with Coal Creek Falls Trail. The Shy Bear Trail also has some muddy spots between the junction with Quarry/Fred's Railroad Trail and its end at Shy Bear Pass. Still no bears. The Wilderness Creek Trail has the one windfall I would have removed had I remembered to bring a saw (as well as check with King County Parks beforehand if such was okay). People have beaten down a detour path (completely unnecessary as the windfall can be stepped over with some effort). http://www.geocities.com/~rangermike