Grand Canyon of 15 mile creek hike

This hike was by far, my most adventuresome one yet. I do not know how I did it, but I did! Words will never be able to describe what my 4-hour, 7 mile hike was like.


I had never driven up Tiger Mountain Road (off of Issaquah Hobart Road) and so I was excited to see if there was a place to park and hop on a trail. I knew I wanted to see this infamous Grand Canyon of 15 mile creek view.


I was nervous of where I parked, not knowing if I was blocking an important gate, but it didn't say NO PARKING, so I went for it. It was near street 260th on TM road. When I was loading my bag, a man startled me by saying, "Good Morning". I was already on edge about this day, parking where I didn't know, hiking alone, worried about my route, so I was super jumpy. This man and I spoke a bit about the day and trails and he offered to head me off in the right direction. So, in my nervousness and haste, I left without my sunglasses and Garmin, but I did make sure I locked the car. So, this man makes me go past the trail I wanted to hike on and he leads me to a bridge. He shows me all the storm damage from 2 years ago and what the creek did to the area when it split and created new paths. It was quite amazing to see what kind of forces had to be going through this area back then. He tells me non-chalantly.. "just head up this creek bed, you will cross it about a dozen times, see the waterfall, every now and then, look up to your right and you will see the washed away trail, now if you are brave, then when you get about 'here' there won't anywhere else to go in the creek bed, so mozey through the bushes (there might be red flags tied to trees) and you will come upon another trail, stay on that a while and then when you get to the end of that, you will take this unofficial deer trail through the bushes and you will come up to Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT). From there, you can do this or that or even this.. all are great, good luck". I ask, "now, why wouldn't I just go back and take the real trail and just get a view of the creek?" He explains, 'no, you want to do this creek bed, it is beautiful, fun, adventurous, you will see sandstone along the way and get the full impact of this canyon". Anyhow, off he goes up the West Side road and I am left shaking in my boots!


My pink highlighted route.
So, off I go, with some courage that I don't know where it came from. Roxy and I make our way up the sides of creek bed of Fifteen Mile Creek. You can see the little creek in this very large creek bed, with lots of storm damage. We cross the creek every so often when we run out of room on a side. The whole time, I am looking up the sides of the banks for wild animals peering at me. I was trying to decide if the Holy Ghost was telling me this is a VERY bad idea. I had my alarm around my neck, my cell phone in pocket, my gun on hip, I really was a wreck.

It really was pretty and I was trying to enjoy this experience.

I started to get more brave as time passed and as I crossed the creek. I kept remembering that Troy was more worried, I would break my ankle while hiking alone. About less than an hour into my hike, I was crossing the creek and I fell in all the way up to my hip. My cellphone did get wet and stopped working for about an hour. Both feet were sloshing. I couldn't believe it, but I laughed outloud. OF COURSE this would happen. Both elbows and ankle bones were scratched up. It really was a funny scene. I got out and kept on trucking along.. I was not turning back now.

This shows a hill slide of massive destruction from the storm. I am looking up the hill from the creek bed.

When I saw this, I thought, please tell me this is not THE waterfall. I mean, really...

A last... the waterfall. It was quite wimpy. So, I got to this point and thought... now what did that man say again? Keep going or do what? I couldn't figure it out, so I climbed a big boulder to get a different perspective. I looked around and sure enough, saw the real trail end where 'normal' people stop to view this silly waterfall. Well, for some unknown reason, I decided to keep going up the creek bed. It is probably a good idea I went alone since I could listen to my intuition and not be persuaded to do something that could have lost my way.

From this point, I hiked until I couldn't go further. Then, I found some PINK tied ribbons and Roxy had already spotted a scent, so we went up a VERY steep brushy hillside. I had no idea what we were doing. I wasn't scared, I knew parrellel to this creek was a trail somewhere. Eventually, we came upon a trail and I assumed it was Hobart Middle Tiger Railroad Grade Trail. It was nice and big and open and calming. Very easy walking through this area. Then, the trail just ends after about a .75 miles, so I find some more ribbons going up another steep hill. I climb this area too, thinking how funny and brave this all was. Finally, I see a TMT sign 1/4 mile more.. I hopped on the TMT and walked another .7 miles until I came to Charles Custer's Bridge. I crossed over to the West side of 15 mile creek. I just happened to run into 2 women who were doing the TMT from North to South. COOOOOOOL... now I have to put that on my list.

Finally, another sign.... so I hopped off the TMT and onto 15 mile Railroad Grade Trail, then onto Hidden Forest Trail. I ran into a family of 4 and said hello.

At this point, I was finally fully relaxed and enjoying this beautiful meadow hike. I could finally listen to my music since before I had to listen for growling bears and cougars. Now, that I was away from the water and there were no berries flowering. I wasn't worried since now other people were out and about too!

Self-portrait, relaxed and happy, the hardest part was over!

This is MIDDLE MOUNTAIN peak, that I basically walked around the base of it. I want to do this peak now, pretty easy only 1800 feet gain and easy to get to, now that I know my bearings there.

I finally came out on West Side road and ran into a Father/Daughter team. We chatted a bit and parted ways.

I do not recommend doing what I did, unless you are adventurous and want something crazy to live and tell about! BUT you should definately do the real trail and walk along the creek bed and enjoy our little "Grand Canyon" here in the PNW. However, f you want to do this, I will take you on this hike later this summer, by special request!