10 Best Hiking & Trails in Seattle (Costs & Tips, 2026)

Eight miles round trip and 3,150 feet of elevation gain make this the trail every Seattle hiker does first, and the summit's Haystack Basalt scramble at the top is optional if the exposed rock isn't your thing — the main viewpoint just below it is plenty. A Discover Pass ($10 for the day) is required and checked regularly at the trailhead, and arrive before 8am on a weekend anyway or the lot will already be full.

The ledge itself juts out over Rattlesnake Lake with nothing but air below on three sides, which is exactly the view that's made this one of the most Instagrammed hikes in the state — and also exactly why the crowd here can feel more like a line than a trail on a sunny Saturday. Free, four miles round trip, gentle enough that it's genuinely one of the more approachable options on this list.

The city's largest park hides genuine sand dunes, a working lighthouse, and bluffs high enough to see the Olympic Mountains across the sound — all without leaving Seattle proper, which makes this the one hike on this list you can reach by bus. Free, and worth checking the tide table before you go, since the beach section along the loop disappears at high tide.

Thirty dollars for the national park entrance is easy to justify once wildflower meadows explode into color for a few short weeks every August, and this loop out of Paradise climbs close enough to the mountain that the summit glaciers fill the entire sky rather than sitting on some distant horizon. About two hours from Seattle, so this is the day's whole plan, not a quick add-on.

A Discover Pass runs about ten dollars (or grab a day pass at the gate), and it buys access to three separate waterfall tiers cascading down the same trail — you don't have to hike the whole thing to see a payoff, since the Lower Falls viewpoint is reachable in about two miles if the full climb to the 265-foot Middle Falls, another half mile beyond it, isn't in the cards that day. About an hour northeast of Seattle in Gold Bar.

Paragliders launch from the open bald at the top on breezy afternoons, so there's a real chance you'll summit alongside someone about to run straight off the edge and glide down to the valley floor — a genuinely different kind of trail traffic than anywhere else on this list. Free, about 4 miles round trip from the Chirico trailhead in Issaquah.

A wooden footbridge crosses directly in front of the lower falls close enough to feel the spray on a high-water day, which makes this short, mostly flat trail one of the better options here for anyone hiking with young kids in tow. A Discover Pass covers the trailhead (about $10 for the day), and the trail connects to the much longer Iron Horse Trail if anyone in the group wants to keep going.

Old-growth forest gives way to open, rocky switchbacks for the last stretch to the summit, and the roughly 4,000 feet of elevation gain over less than 9 miles makes this the genuinely demanding option on this list rather than a casual afternoon out. A Northwest Forest Pass ($5 for the day) covers the trailhead, roughly 90 minutes north of Seattle along the Mountain Loop Highway, best saved for a day with real daylight to spare.

Barely two miles round trip and mostly flat, which is exactly why this is the waterfall hike locals send out-of-town guests on when there isn't a full day to spare — the 70-foot falls at the end still deliver a genuine payoff for the minimal effort. Around $5 for parking, just off I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass.

The largest alpine lake in the Snoqualmie Pass area sits in a granite bowl still holding snow patches well into July most years, a genuine alpine feel less than an hour from the city. About $5 for parking, and it's popular enough that the trailhead lot fills by mid-morning on clear summer weekends.