60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Seattle: Including Bellevue, Everett, and Tacoma

by Bryce Stevens and Andrew Weber

Book Overview

In addition to the Cascade Range and Puget Sound, this authoritative guide also leads to lesser-known destinations, including high bluffs and tide pools along the Pacific, abandoned mines and railways, and stands of old-growth forest inside the city limits.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0897326954
• ISBN13: 9780897326957
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Unexpected Guidebook Gem

The other day I found myself in the passenger seat of my own car for an extended trip. Miles from nowhere with not much left to talk about and nothing but scratchy country music on the radio I noticed the guidebook I had received as a gift, stashed in the sidepocket and promptly forgotten. Raised on the Mountainers "100 Hikes" series, I knew guidebooks to be invaluable on the trail, but as reading material dryer than Central Oregon scree in mid-August. As I thumbed the pages of "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle," I quickly moved from bored to engaged to engrossed. This book was good! In addition to finding dozens of previously overlooked trails within a short drive of my Seattle home, I learned many new and fascinating details about the places I've been hiking for years. The trail descriptions are accurate and appropriately detailed. The navigational instruction are clear and include useful visual landmarks in addition to the usual distance cues. What's best though, is that into the brief trail write-ups Weber and Stevens manage to weave bits of local history, trivia and entertaining lore that greatly enhance the hiking experience. I even found myself reading several sections aloud to my travelling companion. Finally, the authors also understand that sometimes the best hiking tip is not the trail itself, but the location of the local frosty mug or renowned double deluxe burger at trails end! Whether you are new in town, just visiting, or a soggy Seattle native like myself, "60 Hikes" makes a great addition to your recreation library.

Fantastic book

This is one of the best books I have found for the newbie hiker in seattle. If you have a GPS it is even better as you can just the coordinates in the book to find the starting point for each hike. The Maps are great! The descriptions are great!

A good supplement

This well structured hiking book fills a gap in the suite of similar books that cover the Olympics and the Cascades in Western Washington. This volume does a good job identifying interesting hikes close to the metropolitan Puget Sound Basin--the title says it all. The book also adds features that many other hiking books lack, most notably good hike maps and hike profiles. You can do all the hikes in this book without supplemental maps.

Great for hiking trails close to the city

This book has a bunch of really good hikes right near Seattle and the Eastside which is what sets it apart from others I have seen (although it also has some farther out in the mountains). There are a lot of great options if you don't feel like driving too far. Really good if you have kids, or if you want some hard and some easy hikes. The book says it has 40 hikes available year-round, which is great in the winter months. Definitely recommended.

useful and informative

Even if you already own a Seattle hiking guide, this book is worth purchasing. It includes many often-overlooked hikes and trail-runs that involve minimal driving time. Each hike has an informational box with pertinent facts e.g. distance, difficulty, terrain, so that browsing for what you want is remarkably easy. Unlike other local guidebooks, the maps include markers that correspond to salient features in the trail descriptions, making them infinitely more useful. The descriptions themselves are well written, precise, and include interesting historical facts. Plus, as the book is brand-new, the trail information is all up to date.