5 Must-Ride Mountain Bike Trails in Seattle

March 26, 2019

Today’s guest post is from Asa at evo.  

Whether you live in Seat­tle or you’re mak­ing a pil­grim­age to the PNW’s lush forests and loamy brown pow dirt, the city’s sur­round­ing land­scapes are great for lovers of moun­tain bikes. Vast­ly under­rat­ed in terms of access to the great out­doors, Seattle’s geo­graph­ic posi­tion­ing between Puget Sound and the west­ern foot of the Cas­cade Moun­tains gives way to an incred­i­ble vari­ety of trails for moun­tain bikes.

From gru­elling grinds up steep switch­backs to fast, flowy descents with smooth berms and lots of ferns, the rid­ing here is tru­ly world-class. To get the skin­ny on Seattle’s best moun­tain bike trails, we con­sult­ed the experts ate­vo Seattle’s moun­tain bike shop — a local shop that offers gear from top brands like San­ta Cruz Bikes and Tran­si­tion, hel­mets,  acces­sories,  events, bike repair ser­vice and more. Scroll through and scope out the top trail­heads to pay a vis­it to around Seattle:

1. Duthie Hill

The long­time crown jew­el for moun­tain bik­ers in the Greater Seat­tle Area, Duthie Hill Bike Park is posi­tioned on the Issaquah Plateau rough­ly 25 min­utes from the heart of Seat­tle. With 16 miles of rel­a­tive­ly quick and fun inter­con­nect­ed trails sprawl­ing out from a cen­tral hub, Duthie’s 23 trails offer some­thing for every­one; there are jump- and drop-strewn flow trails, XC trails, and more tech­ni­cal wood lad­ders and bal­ance beams for those who are so inclined. If you’re a new­er moun­tain bik­er or sim­ply new to the Seat­tle area, this is a great first stop. 

2. Raging River

The Rag­ing Riv­er trail sys­tem is one of the area’s newest offer­ings and quick­ly becom­ing a local favourite. Although the Rag­ing Riv­er net­work is planned to even­tu­al­ly con­nect with Tiger Moun­tain (see ‘Tiger Moun­tain’ below), it cur­rent­ly offers an epic 45 miles of trail with 30 dis­tinct routes. Some of the local favourites are Pop­pin’ Tops, Flow State, and if you’re real­ly feel­ing ambi­tious, the full loop. Just 35 min­utes out­side Seat­tle off of I‑90’s Exit 27, the Rag­ing Riv­er moun­tain bike trail­head is a great place for a work­out ped­al up and fun, flowy descent. 

3. Tokul East & West

Sit­u­at­ed between Fall City and Sno­qualmie Pass, just 35 min­utes out­side of Seat­tle, the Tokul trail sys­tem is divid­ed into East and West por­tions with sep­a­rate trail­heads — although they can both be accessed from the con­nect­ing Sno­qualmie Val­ley Trail. As far as the style of rid­ing goes, the trails at Tokul West tend to be more XC style through­out while Tokul East has more enduro style trails with log­ging road ascents and faster, flowy and some­times even aggres­sive descents.

4. Tiger Mountain

Tiger Moun­tain is often regard­ed as the PNW moun­tain biker’s mec­ca. With a mas­sive sys­tem of 49 trails stretch­ing over 46 miles, Tiger has a wide vari­ety of trails for every­one from begin­ners to pros. The climb to the top via Mas­ter Link is rel­a­tive­ly mild up mod­er­ate­ly grad­ed switch­backs but pro­vides access to sev­er­al white knuck­le trails back down (think ‘Preda­tor’) as well as sev­er­al oth­er clas­sics like Off The Grid or Ful­ly Rigid. With tons of loop­ing vari­a­tions pos­si­ble, Tiger can feel like a whole new place every time you ride it.

5. Olallie

Locat­ed 45 min­utes from Seat­tle just beyond the pop­u­lar hik­ing trail to Rat­tlesnake Ledge, Olal­lie is a one-way trail that you can ped­al up as far as your heart desires. Put sim­ply, you get out what you put in as the fur­ther you climb, the more you get to enjoy the extreme­ly smooth and bermy sin­gle­track ride back down. With great nat­ur­al drainage and work par­ties rou­tine­ly buff­ing it out, the Olal­lie trail is a stel­lar ride year round.

Still read­ing this? You shouldn’t be. Round up your moun­tain bike gear, make sure your two-wheeled stal­lion isn’t in need of any bike repair (if it is, swing on by evo Seat­tle for a quick bike tune up — our friend­ly bike mechan­ics would be hap­py to help you) and get out there! Want to learn more or dis­cov­er even more great trails? Check out evo’s com­plete guide to Seat­tle moun­tain bike trails for a detailed overview of all the best rides both here and beyond.

We are evo Seat­tle. We are a bike shop, ski shop, snow­board shop, wake shop, skate shop, surf shop, and cloth­ing retail­er all under one roof in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton. In addi­tion to retail, we pro­vide bike repairs, bike rentals, ski/snowboard wax­es & tunes, and ski/snowboard rentals. Vis­it our flag­ship store in the Fre­mont neigh­bour­hood where our knowl­edge­able staff will hap­pi­ly assist you with all of your out­door gear and action sports needs.