55 Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass: Mountains to Sound Greenway

by Ira Spring and Harvey Manning

Fully detailed, best-selling hiking guides.These best of the best guides feature full-color photos and maps throughout.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898867770
• ISBN13: 9780898867770
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The guide is a gateway to hundreds of great hikes and inspirational moments in the outdoors

Long before Interstate 90 was designated a National Scenic byway, Harvey Manning envisioned a preserved natural greenway from the Cascades to Puget Sound. A place where the over-worked city-dweller could rediscover nature, still close to home but able to experience the beauty of the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway. The guide has the witty, insightful interpretation of Spring's exceptional photography and Manning's great influence in the hiking community. **My favorites: Little Si-easy Mount Si-brutal Green Mountain-moderate Mailbox Peak-brutal Taylor River-very easy Snow Lake-easy and very pretty Dirty Harry's Peak-brutal Mason Lake-moderate Bandera Mountain-moderate hike, a leg lifter with view of Mason Lake at top Talapus and Olallie Lakes-easy, great for snow-shoeing Pratt Lake Saddle-long and moderate, kinda creepy way deep in the forest Melakwa Lake-long and a bit creepy too, but Lake is pretty McClellan Butte-the day after I couldn't feel my bum..... Annette Lake-easy, saw my first brown bear here. Kendall Katwalk-moderate and beautiful Rachel Lake-moderate and pretty lake, good for packing overnight Margaret Lake-little lake, but the solitude is nice. Gold Creek-long hike, moderate, can be used in the winter for snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing Mirror Lake-pretty, pretty---have done this hike 10 times. Very easy first hike. On the hike you actually see two lakes, Cottonwood and Mirror. Very short, 2 miles, full hike. Mount Catherine-easy to moderate hike. Three hour hike, total of 1300 ft. I get my huckleberries from this area (also Thorp Mountain hike has nice berries too) Good jam and pancake syrup.

Useful and handy

This is a quite useful guide to the well known and not so well known hikes near the I-90 corridor. It should help people go beyond the (somewhat overused) standards. The descriptions are balanced between giving a flavor of the hike while still leaving some elements to discover.

Great hiking reference

We moved to the Snoqualmie valley area last year. This book is great for showing you the local hikes along the I-90 corridor. Easy to read maps, good descriptions of what to expect and up to date. Slim, yet crammed with information, making it handy for having in your backpack or in the side pocket of the car door. A "worth it" buy for anyone who lives in the area, or those serious about exploring the area when visiting Seattle.

good book for cool hikes

... theres a map , thats easy to read, for each hiking spot, so if you ... dont need dumby directions to get to a hiking spot, and can easy read the map!MOST OF THE HIKES ARE WITHIN 15 MILES of each other, ...! i mean thers a map that has I-90 by each hike, and it DOES HAVE EXIT NUMER, and the road to get to the parking lot of the beging of the hike, the full milage of the hike, elevation gain/loss, land marks on the way up, other hikes that cut cross and connect, u get a picture of where each hike goes, months open, what more could you want!even for someone whos an outta stater could easily find the hikes, its so simple! ...

A good book with a tight focus

I must strongly disagree with the previous reviewer. He gives this book the lowest possible rating because of what he thinks are unclear directions to trailheads. I have read the book in detail, and only find a handful of the problems he describes. For instance, as far as I can tell, only one hike description (#2, Squak Mt.) fails to give directions from an I-90 exit. I agree that this trailhead may thus be difficult for some people to find. However, all of the others should be easily found as long as a person has either a normal state highway map or a rudimentary knowledge of the I-90 corridor between Seattle and Snoqualmie Pass. Also, I don't particularly mind being referred to other hikes for parts of the driving directions. For a group of ten Middle Fork Snoqualmie hikes that all rely on I-90 exit #34, it makes sense to spell out the shared directions in the first trip, and then repeatedly refer to that trip in the descriptions of the others. Saves paper, cost and trees. Occasionally, the authors overdo it with the cross-references, and things are not as clear as they should be. However, on the whole, they do a great job. Written directions are almost always completely understandable, and are supplemented by good maps for both the driving and hiking portions. I feel well qualified to judge the book, because I have hiked extensively in the area of coverage with friends and with four outdoor clubs. I have personally done 40 of these 55 hikes, and know other people who have done most of the rest. I find the trips to be well described, and think that just about all of them are worthwhile. I am glad that the Mountaineers have put out a book highlighting the I-90 hikes, which are some of the most convenient to Seattle. Many are spectacular, and nearly all are within an hour's drive of the city. The only reason I am not giving the book a higher rating is because many of these trips are already described in other Mountaineers books, such as "100 Hikes in Washington's Alpine Lakes." Many of the people who are potentially in the market for this book may find it redundant. However, for people who want to start hiking in the region, who don't already have a shelf full of local hiking guides, and who don't want to go too far from town, this book should be a great way to get into motion.