It is the start of a new hiking season on Capitol Hill. Trailhead Direct bus service, paid for by the county, private sponsors, and the City of Seattle to help deliver outdoor enthusiasts to the region’s closest, most popular, and most parking constrained hiking destinations, begins Saturday.

“We’re bringing back Trailhead Direct with more routes to more trails in more communities,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said in the announcement of the second full season for the program. “Our popular transit-to-trails service has succeeded in many different ways. We have made our spectacular mountain forests accessible to more people, reduced dangerous overcrowding at popular trailheads, and made it easy to hike without having to drive or park.”

The 2019 season of Trailhead Direct has added more pick-up sites including the Tukwila International Boulevard Station with service to more trailheads, including Little Si near North Bend and the Sky Country Trailhead in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.

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The route from Capitol Hill to Mt. Si and Mt. Teneriffe departs the Denny at Broadway stop starting April 20th at 7:39 AM sharp through October 27th on weekends and holidays and subject to weather conditions. Make sure you don’t miss the last shuttle back — or you’ll need to bring a tent.

Trailhead Direct includes 19 and 27-seat vans with capacity for two bicycles for each trip. Passengers pay a $2.75 flat fare under the public-private partnership between King County and the Seattle Department of Transportation.

CHS reported here on the 2018 addition of service from Capitol Hill Station under the program created to help ease parking problems at the popular trailheads as the region’s population continues to boom.

Procrastinators and spur of the moment types take note. In addition to helping ease traffic and pressure on parking at the trailheads, the program is also an excellent opportunity for last minute types providing nearly guaranteed access — as long as you can score a seat on the bus.

You can learn more about the service and view the full schedule at trailheaddirect.org.