Trailhead Direct service is returning in 2026 on weekends from May 23 to August 30. Additionally, the service will run on a few holidays, specifically: Memorial Day (Monday, May 25) and Independence Day (Friday, July 3).
Trailhead Direct consists of two routes, one from Capitol Hill station to Mount Si and one from Mount Baker station to the Issaquah Alps. These routes are similar to last year. The Issaquah Alps route has been truncated at Squak Mountain and now runs full trips later in the day.
The now open 2 Line service across Lake Washington makes these routes redundant with frequent and fast transit west of South Bellevue P&R. Why do these routes still travel into Seattle? The primary reason is how Trailhead Direct service is funded. Via the Seattle Transit Measure (STM), the Seattle Department of Transportation is a significant sponsor. In 2024, the STM funded 50% of Trailhead Direct service. Truncating these routes at South Bellevue station could free funding for more frequent service or more routes, but SDOT has little incentive to fund routes that operate completely outside the City.
Mount Si Route
The Mount Si route runs every 30 minutes and stops at the Mount Si, Mount Teneriffe, and Little Si trailheads. From Capitol Hill, the route travels downtown to stop on 4th Ave near Symphony station. On the way to the trailheads, the route stops at South Bellevue Station and North Bend P&R.
Issaquah Alps Route
The Issaquah Alps route runs every 30 minutes and stops at the Margaret’s Way and Squak Mountain trailheads. Starting at Mount Baker Transit Center, the route stops at South Bellevue Station and Issaquah Transit Center before stopping at each trailhead. The Issaquah Alps route will stop at all stops for every afternoon run. While we do not recommend starting a hike from the trip that departs Mount Baker at 5:42 pm, passengers traveling to South Bellevue or Isssaquah Transit Center can board these later runs.
Trips in both directions make local stops along Rainier Ave between Mount Baker Transit Center and Judkins Park station. Eastbound trips do not stop at JPS directly, the closest stop is Rainier Ave & Grand St. Westbound trips stop at Judkins Park Station – Bay 1 (southbound on Rainier).
Last year, this route also served the High School Trail and East Sunset Way trailheads. These trails are still somewhat transit accessible via a 20 minute walk from stops served by ST Route 554 and Metro Route 208.
I know this is from limitations in the Seattle TBD funding, but I wish that there were some way for the routes to start at South Bellevue in exchange for running until Labor Day weekend, and/or with some more routes. The south and east sides of Tiger Mountain, for instance, are still hard to get to by transit without a very long out-and-back hike.
I also wish that Snohomish County could fund something similar for Community Transit – there’s so many hikes along Highways 2 and 20 that are just out of reach of normal transit, and have the same parking lot issues that started Trailhead Direct in King County.
If city of Seattle can own dam and reservoir far away from city limit, they sure should find a way to justify running a route outside city limits to help their residents. It is just dumb to pay redundant service just to have it reach the city limits.