Closure Notice: The Spiketon Ditch Bridge is closed until further notice. Please check with Pierce County for more current information.
Overview
The Foothills Trail is a 24.7-mile collection of five unconnected segments of the old Burlington Northern Railway that served the farming, coal-mining, and logging economies near the base of Mount Rainier. The longest section is a paved trail that rolls between the outskirts of Puyallup to Buckley. Other paved, gravel, and dirt segments are located in Boise, Enumclaw, and Wilkeson. Plans call for connecting all these pieces.
About the Route
There are five trailheads—East Puyallup, McMillin, Orting, South Prairie, and Buckley—along the 25-mile route, in addition to several other parking locations. Leaving the Puyallup-Buckley trailhead, trail users will pass through farmland that once produced 60 million daffodil bulbs annually. All that remains of that era is the annual Daffodil Festival, as well as that bloom's depictions on signs and even a sculpture along the route.
From Puyallup, the trail heads south as it follows WA-162 and parallels the Puyallup River. In McMillin, the route crosses the river via a pedestrian bridge. About eight miles south of Puyallup, the City of Orting offers a bike shop, cafés, bakeries, and more.
South of Orting, the trail curves northeast as it follows the Carbon River more closely. Briefly veering away from the trail is the Carbon River which runs milky white from a melting glacier on Mount Rainier. The active volcano's white summit is visible most of the way. It’s responsible for making this perhaps the only rail trail posted with lahar warning signs, which direct trail users to head for the hills to escape volcanic mudflow in the event of seismic activity.
The route follows the old railroad S-curve (less than 1.5 miles long), which was built to reach the elevation of the Enumclaw Plateau and includes four bridges (one 400 feet long).
Heading northeast through Buckley, the rail trail passes the Logging Museum with its stadium for the annual logging contests and a historical display of log-industry artifacts. The pavement ends at a use-at-own-risk sign south of town.
In 2024, the construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the White River connects this portion of the trail to the next section between Wilkeson and Carbonado. Wilkeson, with its old-timey Main Street storefronts, is one of the few surviving towns from the coal-mining era. A 1-mile-long paved trail takes a switchback uphill to a well-maintained dirt singletrack that completes the 4.4-mile journey through the woods to historic Carbonado.
North of town, another single track leaves off from an unmarked trailhead on the left side of 156th Street Court E, about 200 feet west of the intersection with Johns Road E. The dirt trail heads through the narrow valley formed by Wilkeson Creek.
Two more Foothills Trail sections leave off from Enumclaw, located in southern King County. One heads north into farmland for 1.9 miles. This starts as a 0.2-mile paved trail and then becomes gravel and later a dirt track running between pasture fence lines. The 2.1-mile southern segment leaves off east of downtown and heads south toward Buckley on asphalt for 1.2 miles. A soft surface follows, but that becomes impassable before SE Mud Mountain Road.
Trail History
The Northern Pacific Railway Company laid its tracks from Tacoma to the coalfields around Wilkeson in 1877. In 1970, the railroad merged into Burlington Northern, which ceased using the lines in 1982. Two years later, residents began working to create the Foothills Trail.
The Foothills Trail (WA) runs between Shaw Rd E (Puyallup) and SE 416th St. (Birch).
Parking is available at:
There are numerous parking options along the route, please see TrailLink Map for all parking options and detailed directions.
My trailhead is always the lot at 423 Washington Av SE, Orting; heading east to Buckley from there avoids the majority of urban and traffic.
But the Spiketon Ditch Bridge 9 miles on (1.6 mi past S. Prairie) is currently closed, as "structurally compromised." Trail is blocked. It's a turnaround.
I do truly love the 9 miles that are open, sections along the Carbon River, others lined with woods, through farmlands, in and out of the small town of South Prairie, views of Mt. Ranier, ...
Nice paved trail. Of the 20 miles between Puyallup and Buckley, MOSTLY I SAW FOLIAGE, farms, some homes. I went there and back, thus, 40 miles. With bike I departed Puyallup parking at Monday noon, so very few people using it. 78 and blue skies, Mt. Rainier was present in my sights. Super easy as there is nothing much to call a hill. Some complain about road noise, and around Orting, the trail runs along the road and through this town, so sure, noise there. (I ride with some good earbuds in listening to podcasts, so noise nearby noise is just not a factor for me.) But before and after Orting noise or traffic scenes were not present. Of course, you can turn around to you head back to your car at any point, making this a 15 mile, 30, or such. This is a bike path to just ride easy and enjoy; no sweat.
Spiketon Bridge is closed three miles out of Buckley….so disappointing! We saw no notifications about disclosure anywhere.
We road from Orting to Buckley . Nice Ride. Trail well maintained. One small section with some roots marked for repair. Moderate number of people on a Sunday afternoon.
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