Everything about Iron Horse State Park totally explained
Iron Horse State Park, part of the
Washington State Park System, is a
state park located in the
Cascade Mountains and
Yakima River Valley, between Cedar Falls on the west and the
Columbia River on the east.
The park is a
rail trail that crosses
Snoqualmie Pass. The heritage park commemorating railroading was once in the
right-of-way of the The Milwaukee Road, officially the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The right-of-way was acquired by the state after the railroad's bankruptcy in the 1980s and has been converted into of
hiking,
mountain biking, and
horseback riding trail. It is the developed portion of the
John Wayne Pioneer Trail, which continues to the
Idaho border.
The trail west continues as the Snoqualmie Valley Trail of the King County Regional Trail System. The trail east along the old Milwaukee Road is also called John Wayne Pioneer Trail, though Europeans arrived by boat or by travelling north from The Oregon Trail (1840), or the railhead near south
Puget Sound (1853 or c. 1872, respectively). Arrival to the Snoqualmie Cascades of the
Great Northern Railroad in 1910 and the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railroad in 1911 provided one of the means for development of the logging railroads and timber industry that eventually cut nearly all the Cascade Mountains forests. The park is part of the Mountains to Sound Greenway preserving the scenic corridor.
Recreation
Like most
rails-to-trails projects, Iron Horse is popular with hikers and cyclists. There are many trail heads across the state, most with modern facilities, ample parking for a less common trail, and even a handful of campgrounds.
The trail passes through mostly woodland, several lakes, hidden waterfalls like the one shown below, and goes directly through the divide at the old
Snoqualmie Tunnel. The park is easily accessible from
I-90; unfortunately it's within sight of the freeway in some places.
Iron Horse seems to be more popular for its scenery than its history, although it's less well-known than other parks like the
Alpine Lakes Wilderness area (which Iron Horse passes through) or
Snoqualmie Falls.
The park trail continues through the Town of
South Cle Elum where the preserved Milwaukee Road depot and substation, as well as the remains of the rail yard are located. The are listed in the
National Register of Historic Places. There is a small museum in the depot. In
Kittitas, the trail passes
The Milwaukee Road depot and the ruins of the substation. That depot is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to these buildings, other infrastructure remains, such as tunnels and bridges.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Iron Horse State Park'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://iron_horse_state_park.totallyexplained.com">Iron Horse State Park Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
