If you haven’t been enjoying the mountain wilderness lately, you might not know that parking at the more popular hikes off Interstate 90 has become a nightmare.
Two weeks ago, as I pulled into the Mailbox Peak parking lot at 9 a.m., two county employees stopped me. They said the lot for the trailhead had been full since 7:30 a.m. If I wanted somewhere safe to park, I’d need to drive back to North Bend and catch a shuttle to the trailhead. Like an idiot, I ignored the recommendation, parked a mile away, and walked down a dangerous mountain road back to the trailhead, complaining that I’d never seen the Mailbox parking lot so full, especially not this early in the season.
This is exactly the kind of situation King County Metro and King County Parks were trying to avoid when they introduced the Trailhead Direct program in 2017.
