Seattle Trails

Tracy Swartout takes the reins as acting superintendent of the national park this week.

This week's 3.9 earthquake rattled windows from Portland to Puget Sound.

Washington's sea star numbers are up in the aftermath of a four-year wasting syndrome epidemic.

Officials tried three times to tow a motorist out of deep snow on a remote wilderness road.

Locals fear the 6,500-strong Colockum Herd poses risks to drivers and ranchers.

Get the scoop on new visitor center and inn operating hours, plus winter ranger programs.

The animals broke free from their winter pasture and trotted through town before police helped round them up.

The 24-year-old died after falling off his sit-on-top boat.

The Trailhead Direct shuttle, which serves popular trailheads in the Issaquah area, attracted about 900 hikers in its debut season.

Smoke from this week's Southern California wildfires is riding a high-pressure system to the Northwest.

Seattle's closest resort is ready for winter.

November storms wiped out the Olympic National Park road for the second time in two years.

Santa and cookies add seasonal fun to the scenic train ride.

Flooding and a landslide have shuttered the Elwha Valley, Hoh Road, and Staircase Road.

Terence Garvin worked with Team Mission, which uses mountaineering as therapy.

The proposed changes would raise entrance fees to $70 at 17 super-popular national parks.

Women made up a huge part of The Mountaineers' Everett chapter from 1911 on.

The two Bellingham men disappeared from the Mt. Baker backcountry.

The Verlot pay phone has been used to call 911 25 times in the last two years.

A 21-year-old Oregon man fell while descending Mt. Storm King.

The 61-year-old is a ski historian, author, founder of Northwest Mountaineering Journal, and lifelong lover of the mountains.

Entrance fees are waived nationwide for Veterans Day, November 11 and 12.

The climber, guidebook author, environmentalist, and historian notched a long string of first ascents in his illustrious mountaineering career.

The popular Lake Serene Trail traverses through Weyerhauser property, and now they want to cash in.

Two hikers reported a vehicle in the parking lot after completing a hike on Sauk Mountain. Officials connected it to a missing man.

Two hikers on the PCT in Chelan County are safe.

The National Park Service is considering a fee hike in more than a dozen of the system's most popular parks.

Since August, eight people have been charged with 191 criminal counts in a huge poaching case in southeast Washington.

Olympic National Park awarded a $2.2-million contract to demolish and rebuild cabins at Log Cabin Resort.

Some 50,000 birds stop off here for winter nesting after flying in from Alaska or Siberia.

A series of reports show how far we've come in protecting salmon in the Northwest—and how far we still need to go.

REI just closed the deal on a $49.3 million property in Bellevue's Spring District—the future site of its headquarters.

A mass of warm water—known as "the blob"—has had lingering effects on numbers of juvenile salmon.

The population of mountain goats has gone from 20 to the thousands to 300 to 623 at last count. The NPS wants to airlift them out.

Rescuers recovered the body of a 32-year-old who fell near the middle falls.

More than two dozen small earthquakes shook Rainier this past week, but there's no need to worry, say seismologists.

After being closed because of fires, the White River and Sunrise areas of Mount Rainier National Park are now open again.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife captured a bear scratching his itch.

A dozen rabid bats were found this August on sidewalks and in homes and public parks in Washington, bring the yearly count to 21.

Though the Norse Peak Fire has mellowed, it's still too unpredictable to reopen Crystal.

Five whale species, the yellow-billed cuckoo bird, the loggerhead sea turtle, and the fisher are on Washington's endangered list.

Want a dose of pure beauty? Check out Anastasia Allison (scout, violin) and Rose Freeman (mountaineer, piano) performing summit "Ashokan Farewell."

The Valor Memorial honors four people who died in the park while saving others.

Check out BACKPACKER Contributors and Editors's author page.

The Norse Peak Fire has forced the closure of all the backcountry trails on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park.

Officials are asking anyone and everyone to catch as many fish as possible after devastating breach in a net that contained 305,000 salmon.

Nick Burson, 31, and Marc McPhereson, 43—both cops in Ellensburg—summitted Adams, St. Helens, Rainier, Baker and Glacier Peak in just five days.

Allison Macsas and Mallory Brooks complete 93 miles in 29 hours.

Want to bring home berries from the central and south Cascades? Even amateurs need a permit this year.

Twenty-two artists from around North America are spending the week in plein air, painting the beauty of the Olympics.

Maj. Mario Cooper, 37, of SeaTac, fell several hundred feet and landed in a glacial crevasse.

Seattle's very urban Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park has an important lesson: relevance.

Slime mold comes in many forms. But this one is the most...memorable.

The Bridge Creek-McAlester Pass Trail takes you all the way from Highway 20 to legendary, gigantic cinnamon rolls and cold beer.

There are more than 20 different permits and passes to use public lands in Washington. Soon, that may change for the better.

The world's top volcanologists will gather in Portland the week of August 14 to talk eruptions, risks, mud slurries, hot gas.

Kimberly Haines, missing for days after a trail run, makes contact by cell phone signal.

To prevent overfull parking lots at three popular trails, Trailhead Direct will connect Metro riders on weekends and holidays.

The 71-year-old woman made it through six days by building a shelter and eating ants and currants.

The dog and its owner were walking along a trail around 8 pm when they encountered the big cat.

The 61-year-old Bellingham resident was found in a crevasse on Forbidden Peak.

A new management plan proposes killing or relocating the park's population of mountain goats.

The 71-year-old Port Angeles woman had been lost in the park since July 17.

A restored stretch of trail near Cloud Cap once again completes the 40-mile loop around the Oregon volcano.

The iconic Cascades getaway will now be a mountain biking destination, too.

The distinctive crustacean was discovered this week in Whidbey Island's Crescent Harbor.

Just one snow hole on Aasgard Pass in the Enchantments has killed three in the past six years.

The skier fell into a chasm on the Emmons Glacier after successfully summitting the peak.

The 34-year-old Ohio man disappeared last fall near White Pass.

A news crew captured a Los Angeles couple getting engaged in ultra-romantic fashion.

The 75-year-old Olympia man left his group to hike cross-country.

The 100-year-old McFee Tunnel trail segment is on the north shore of Lake Crescent.

The 69-year-old woman slipped while hiking a popular trail in the Mt. Baker National Forest.

Mesmerizing time-lapse video show the galaxy spinning alongside The Mountain.

An RMI Expeditions guide notched 520 ascents this summer.

The newly reintroduced population of furry carnivores is reproducing in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

About 70 endangered rabbits were killed when the Wenatchee-area fire burned a state breeding facility.

One of the victims is thought to be a hiker missing since April.

An unidentified body found at Olympic National Park is thought to be a hiker who vanished last April.

Rescuers were unable to find a skier who plunged through a snow bridge into Pebble Creek.