Trip Report
Day Hike - Cougar Mountain: Big Tree Ridge Trailhead
Michael Cummins did a wonderful job on his mentored hike lead this morning for 9 Mountaineers - no wind, no rain, trail in decent shape, and 10 bird species. Happy holiday kickoff for sure!
Courtenay Schurman
- Tue, Dec 23, 2025
- Day Hike - Cougar Mountain: Big Tree Ridge Trailhead
- Cougar Mountain: Big Tree Ridge Trailhead
- Day Hiking
- Successful
-
- Road suitable for all vehicles
-
I co-led a "mentored leader" Mountaineers hike this morning (group of 9). My first obstacle was realizing that I couldn't access the TH from Exit 13 due to road work; that added 8 minutes of travel time to go around and backtrack from Exit 15. The second obstacle was our planned 7:30 meeting time -- King County hadn't opened the parking lot until 7:47. (No parking permit needed.) Not to worry!
There are work-arounds for both: 1) follow your GPS instructions (I was on auto-pilot, not a good idea right now with so much roadwork); 2) park on surface streets or in the small parking lot on the frontage road if the gates are closed; and 3) plan to arrive around 8 AM or later if you can stomach downtown Seattle traffic.
Portapotties are open, although they were in much better shape when we first arrived compared to when I left around 11:30 - brand new TP rolls, but someone left a female mess (!!) in the smaller of the two (or else rodents got in. Gah!)
We had wonderful weather - no wind or rain - and the trail was in great shape except for a few run-offs. Perhaps the most water I've seen on this trail, which makes total sense given recent storms. Once we got up the Big Tree Ridge trail, we turned LEFT to go over to No Name Trail and Tebbets Swamp, on a clockwise trip to the Million Dollar Pergola, and then looping back along the Shangri-La to rejoin the Big Tree Ridge Trail.
At the easternmost extent of our loop, we did encounter a red ribbon that said "Trail closed due to landslide," where E1(Bear Ridge Trail) meets E3 (Shangri-La) so be aware: there are indeed places on Cougar that are impassable, but the loop we did had no blow downs or loss of trail, just some muddy areas and a few tree roots that are slick. Half our group used poles, the others did not.
On the morning, our moving pace was 2.3 mph, 5.4 miles and 2:30 moving time, with a clothing break, a bio break, and a longer (20 minutes) snack break at the pergola for 20 minutes. Lovely conversation and ten bird species including brown creepers, a hairy woodpecker, a raven, and 5 stellers jays among them. I brought a pair of binoculars so everyone could check out the snow-covered peaks to the north.
We encountered a few dog owners with their dogs, a few trail runners, and there were 3 cars in the parking lot near the "Million dollar view", 5 in the parking lot when we got down at 10:55. A wonderful outing on Christmas Eve Eve.