Grand Opening of the East Lake Sammamish Trail

The paved version of the East Lake Sammamish Trail (ELST) is now open for walkers, runners, baby strollers and cyclists.  The grand opening ribbon-cutting (actually banner-breaking) ceremony was conducted on Saturday, October 7, coinciding with Salmon Days in Issaquah.  The event was conducted on the north end of the trail in Redmond, which minimized the traffic and parking travails of the Salmon Days event.

The 11-mile trail is a key component of the 44-mile Locks to Lake corridor, providing a continuous paved path from the waterfront in Ballard to eastside communities and Lake Sammamish. And, most importantly, of course, connections to trailheads of the Issaquah Alps.

 

Map courtesy King County Parks.

 

Travelers can continue eastward on another segment of the King County regional trail system, the Issaquah-Preston Trail (7 miles), and then on to the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail (another 7 miles), yielding a total of 58 miles of trail from Golden Gardens at Shilshole Bay to the overlook of Snoqualmie Falls on the eastern end.  The “Locks to Lake” moniker is nicely alliterated, but we need a more expansive moniker reaching out to the eastern end of the corridor.  How about the “Shilshole to Snoqualmie Trail?”   (One caveat on the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail: there is a bridge closed about 2 miles before the eastern end of the trail - scheduled for repair next year.)

The trail follows the former BNSF railroad along the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish.  King County Parks acquired the corridor in 1997 and opened the narrower gravel trail in 2006.  Then began the incremental process of converting the gravel trail to a broader paved trail in segments, starting in Redmond.  Now, 17 years after the gravel trail debut, the vision for the fully paved route has been realized.

The banner-breaking was officiated by King County Executive Dow Constantine and a cadre of county officials, staff and the mayors of Redmond and Sammamish.  Here are a couple of images from the celebration:

 

King County Executive Dow Constantine (fourth from left) officiates the banner-breaking of the ELST. Photo by Tom Anderson.

King County Councilmember Sarah Perry addresses the crowd of ELST fans. Photo by Tom Anderson.

 
Tom Andersonadvocacy, partner, conservation northwest