Mount Si is a well known landmark and a very popular hiking destination, located in the Cascade foothills just east of Seattle. The mountain looms over the town of North Bend, its steep west face rising thousands of feet to craggy pinnacles. As the first high, jagged summit a traveler sees while heading east on I-90, it is an integral part of the rampart that the Cascade Range presents to the Puget Sound area.

A well-graded trail climbs about 3300 vertical feet (from 600 to 3900 feet) in 4 miles to just below the summit "haystack". This is an extremely popular and crowded trail, with estimates of 80,000 - 100,000 users per year, an average of 250 per day. Fortunately, a reconstruction of the trail by the state in 1993 allows it to handle the load quite well. The ascent is continuously steep and almost entirely in deep forest, with few views between the trees. But near the top, just below the haystack, rocky crags provide spectacular vistas westward over North Bend and the Snoqualmie Valley to Seattle skyscrapers, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains.

How to Get There

Head east on Interstate 90 and get off on Exit 31, then drive east on North Bend Way and in less than a mile turn left onto Mount Si Road. Cross the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River bridge at 0.3 miles and drive two miles to the trailhead parking lot.