Qualla: Issaquah Alps

Issaquah Alps: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Stevens from Seattle, CC BY 2.0. Harvey Manning lived in what he called his '200 meter hut' on Cougar Mountain, the westernmost and lowest of the hills he had christened the Issaquah Alps. The name was deliberate provocation. In his 1977 trail guidebook Footsore 1, Manning elevated a chain of wooded foothills east of Seattle from forgettable suburban backdrop to something worth fighting for. If they were Alps, they deserved Alpine protection. The trick worked. Nearly five decades later, thousands of acres of Cougar, Squak, and Tiger Mountains are public parkland, and Issaquah proudly calls itself 'Trailhead City.'

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Image: Peter Stevens from Seattle | CC BY 2.0

Issaquah Alps: Fifty Million Years in the Making

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Stevens from Seattle, CC BY 2.0. The geology of the Issaquah Alps tells a story far older than their whimsical name. The hills are composed of andesitic volcanic rock resting on top of tightly folded sedimentary layers from the coastal plain of the North Cascade subcontinent, which docked with what is now Washin...

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Image: Peter Stevens from Seattle | CC BY 2.0

Issaquah Alps: The Peaks and Their Character

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Stevens from Seattle, CC BY 2.0. The Issaquah Alps stretch along Interstate 90 from the shore of Lake Washington nearly to the western face of the Cascade Range, a chain of seven named highlands each with its own personality. Cougar Mountain, at 1,614 feet, anchors the western end with its network of trails thro...

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Image: Peter Stevens from Seattle | CC BY 2.0

Issaquah Alps: Manning's Campaign

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Stevens from Seattle, CC BY 2.0. Harvey Manning was not content simply to name the Alps. In 1979, two years after coining the term, he helped found the Issaquah Alps Trails Club to maintain trails and advocate for public ownership of the land. The IATC, headquartered in Issaquah, organized frequent guided hikes ...

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Image: Peter Stevens from Seattle | CC BY 2.0

Issaquah Alps: The Alps from the Air

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ron Clausen, CC BY-SA 4.0. From a few thousand feet above the I-90 corridor, the Issaquah Alps present as a green wall rising abruptly from the suburban flatlands east of Lake Washington. The chain runs roughly east-west, with Cougar Mountain closest to Bellevue and the higher Tiger Mountain peaks marking ...

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Image: Ron Clausen | CC BY-SA 4.0