Issaquah Salmon Days, salmon viewing plus hike on nearby Squak and Tiger trails

The Issaquah Salmon Days festival is next weekend! Let's go watch the salmon returning to spawn, stop in at the festival for lunch, then do a loop hike through the east side of the Squak Mtn area and (optionally) the west edge of the Tiger Mtn area, then come back to the festival.

We'll start from the Issaquah Transit Center at 9am, and visit every spot where we can look for salmon, finishing up with the Issaquah Fish Hatchery. This part is a walk of about 3 miles, on flat paths. We'll scatter into the festival to get lunch (or bring your lunch), after choosing a time and location to re-assemble.

After lunch, our actual hike starts. On the Squak side, we'll follow neighborhood trails, then the Squak Access trail, then the Sycamore Access trail. (Folks who have been on some previous Squak hikes will recognize the beginning of this as our usual route to the East Ridge trail that we take up to the Squak southeast peak or central peak.)

That segment will end at the High School trail trailhead. From there, we have several options: 1) We can head into Tiger via the High School trail, then take the Adventure trail, and exit at the Sunset Way trailhead -- this is 7.5 mi, 1125 ft up. 2) Or, we can take some obscure trails through Pointe Park, also coming out the Sunset Way trailhead -- this is about 6.8 mi, 925 ft up. 3) Or, we can make a beeline back to the festival via the Rainier trail (which takes us past the Thomas Dambo troll Jacob Two Trees) -- this is 5.9 mi, 625 ft up. (The three route options are shown in the event images.)

We could split up when we get to the High School trailhead, if some folks want to get back to the festival asap, and others want a longer hike. For all options, we'll get back to the festival with time to visit the vendors and exhibits -- the festival ends at 6pm. We can hop on a shuttle bus to return to the transit center.

This is a large festival, with many local artisans and musicians participating. It runs both Saturday and Sunday. There will be many food vendors, including the Issaquah Kiwanis annual salmon bake. Festival info:

Salmon Days: https://www.salmondays.org/
Festival map, shuttle info, etc.: https://www.salmondays.org/sd-2025-festival-information
Vendors: https://salmondays.festivalsetup.com/vendors
Issaquah Kiwanis: https://www.issaquahkiwanis.org/

Logistics:

Meet at 9am at the south end of the Issaquah Transit Center passenger loading area. The #554 bus from Seattle arrives shortly before -- we will wait for it to arrive.

The Squak / Tiger portions of this are on actual trail, so hiking shoes / boots are recommended. You could bring both those and whatever you prefer for streets, and swap when we start / end the trail part of the route.

Bring water, and bring lunch if you don't want to hunt for food at the festival.

Bus riders: The main buses serving the Issaquah TC are the #271 and #554. There is a #554 run from downtown Seattle that gets to the Issaquah TC at 8:56am.

Drivers: There is parking at the Issaquah Transit Center.

Use comments here to coordinate.

Please change your RSVP if you sign up but can't go.