I love this trail. It is very close to my home and the forest is beautiful even though there isn't a waterfall or view just beautiful forest and currently small wildflowers. I hiked this later in the day for the 5th time hoping that some of the bikers had gone home. Today was the second time I was almost creamed by 3 men mountain biking downhill and coming around a blind curve. The first biker stopped just short of me and the second biker slide to a stop almost hitting the first biker. They never apologized and didn't say a word but did stop long enough for my two leached dogs and myself to walk around them. It isn't fun to be on a beautiful trail and almost get hit by bikers going at least 17+ miles an hour. (My guess, I use to road race on my road bike.) It is disappointing that these bikers are taking over this new nice trail. I hope someone including myself doesn't get hurt hiking on this trail with a few inconsiderate mountain bikers. Many bikers were polite but it only takes one crazy to ruin your day.

Heard about this trail during a recent WTA work party in Auburn with much talk about the boardwalk near the end. The trail is in great shape. Some climb at the beginning (about 500-750 feet over a mile or so) then level with ups/downs. Made it all the way to the boardwalk, about 4 hours roundtrip. It is a good nearby hike w/o much altitude gains. If the small parking lot is full, just park on the access road on the other side of I-90 that leads up to the tiger mountain trails. One warning, this is a heavily used mountain bike trail so beware if it freaks you out when a bike comes zipping down towards you. I will add that EVERY biker we encountered was very hiker friendly, courteous and paying attention. But it is a shared trail between mountain bikers and hikers.

I had not done the northern section of the Grand Ridge Park Trail between Grand Ridge Drive and the SE Issaquah-Fall City Road, so decided on this hike today. I parked on NE Harrison Drive in the Issaquah Highlands and hiked 100 yards up to the trail head on Grand Ridge Drive because there is no parking where the trail crosses the road (there are no shoulders on this road). The trail snakes up through the woods, then hits an old logging road to the second trail junction. The main trail turns right and goes down hill to a creek crossing, them meets another old logging road and goes up a muddy hill. The road makes a horse shoe turn across another creek and goes a short distance and ends. There is a side trail (not shown on the King Co. Park map) just past the creek with a new sign, "PTS. East", heading uphill. From the end of the old road, the trail now heads down hill to two bridge creek crossings, where along the way I spotted an old King Co. survey concrete monument with a brass cap dated "1940". After the second bridge that cross a tributary of Canyon Creek the trail goes back up hill into a flat area. I passed a large granite boulder left from the last ice age when the glaciers melted back some 10,000 years ago. Then I passed a small lake with a sign reading "No Swimming Allowed". Further on the trail switchbacks down hill to the new boardwalk across the swamp that was construction by WTA members. They did a great job on this project. At the end on the boardwalk the trail swithbacks up about 1/4 mile to the SE Issaqauh-Fall City Road just acoss from Duthie Hill Park. I had lunch at the wooden bench on the boardwalk before hiking back, which is mostly up hill. I met several mtn. bikers, one trail running and one guy walking in slacks and a dress shirt. The trail is muddy in several areas, especially on the section between the big boulder and the new boardwalk. Anly saw one Douglas squirel and a few birds. No views along this hike as you are in the forest the whole time. The only big view was where I parked and you could see out to the Olympic Mtns., the skyscrypers of Bellevue and Seattle, plus the brown LA haze hanging over Seattle. This hike make a good alternative to the crowds going up West Tiger 3. George

Started out from Central Park in Highlands...If your looking for a nice local Seattle area hike without having to get into snow this is a good one at the moment as long as you don't mind sharing the trail with more bikers than hikers. Lovely little rolling ramble through the hills without any blow downs today.