Take the bus to these King County hiking trails, starting May 13

As temps rise this weekend, hiking season begins in Western Washington, and that means the return of King County's Trailhead Direct — the region's city-to-trail bus service.

Trailhead Direct is a remedy to a common hiking problem in the Seattle area. City dwellers headed for mountain trails generally have to wake up quite early, drive some winding roads, and hopefully get a parking spot before the trailhead fills up. And it will fill up — fast. Hopping a bus to and from the trail solves this issue.

Trailhead Direct started in 2017 as a partnership between King County Parks and King County Metro. It connects hikers from dense urban neighborhoods to trails in King County. The trail buses start running again this weekend, just in time for peak hiking season.

“It starts on Saturday, May 13, and runs weekends and holidays through Labor Day, which is September 4," said Ryan Miller, a transportation planner with King County Metro. "Folks should look for little Trailhead Direct flags underneath regular Metro bus stops at Capitol Hill Station through First Hill, and in downtown Seattle at Fourth and Spring. Hop on that bus, and within 50 minutes you'll be up at Mount Teneriffe, Mount Si, or Little Si, hiking to your heart's content.”

In previous years, the Parks department was confronting crowded parking lots, and wanted to see if Metro could help alleviate the number of cars lining mountain roads by providing a transit route.

The department began with a trial run around Issaquah Alps. It proved to be very popular. There were requests to expand service from Seattle further down the I-90 corridor.

“And the top place we heard was Mount Si and those trailheads over by there," Miller said.

Thus, Trailhead Direct was born, and with it, a new effort to include more people from different socioeconomic backgrounds in outdoor spaces. Each trip from Seattle to the Trails is only $2.75 each way — $5.50 round trip.

“Folks can use their ORCA card, pay with cash, use mobile tickets, or any other fare media that we accept on our regular bus or light rail systems," Miller explained. "Trailhead Direct is transit and you'll use it just like any other bus.”

From its humble origins as a parking capacity solution, the mission of the program has evolved into an effort to improve access to nature for people who may not otherwise be able to reach far-flung trailheads.

Helen Potter is a project manager on the community engagement and communications team for King County Parks.

“I think at the most basic level, first and foremost, it's about equity," Potter said. "Because everybody should be able to enjoy wherever they would like to go in this region. Also, when we think about the medical and mental health benefits of being in nature, that is something that everyone should be able to enjoy.”

At its height in 2019, Trailhead Direct was running four different routes, servicing different parts of the county and taking folks to a variety of parks & trails. But like everything else in 2020, buses were affected by the pandemic. The Trailhead Direct service was canceled that summer, returned with two routes in 2021, then last year dropped to the single “Capitol Hill to Mt. Si” route we have now.

Miller adds that Trailhead Direct was hit by the same hardships the region's other mass transit route were after the pandemic struck — driver shortages, staff shortages, etc. The trailhead program hasn't fully recovered from those setbacks.

"So while Metro was really committed to the Trailhead Direct program, and I know we would love to see it grow more restored back to what it was, we're operating in 2019 with the four routes, we just don't have that operational capacity right now," Miller said.

Potter says that King County Parks has been working with partners in the community to help get the word out about the service and its low cost. They would like to attract new audiences.

“Folks who may or may not speak English, BIPOC folks, and really trying to activate them to get them out on the trail," Potter said. "So we're definitely really focusing in on those user groups to try to get the word out, doing a lot of translation, and we also are planning to create more, sort of like behind the scenes come along with us on a trailhead direct trip content that can sort of let folks know what it's like to use the service and sort of raise awareness more.”

Soundside host Libby Denkmann also talked with Kitty Craig, the director of the "Urban to Wild" project at The Wilderness Society, about what our area needs to do to increase equitable access to outdoor spaces.

You can listen to the entire conversation in the audio above.