King County Parks and King County Metro are happy to announce that the Trailhead Direct service will be returning for 2022! All aboard for the outdoors.
This year’s Trailhead Direct season will serve Mount Si, with buses originating at the Sound Transit Capitol Hill Link light rail station and service every 30 minutes to Mount Si, Mount Teneriffe, and Little Si. The season will launch on Saturday, May 28th and run through Sunday, Sept. 11th. As King County Metro continues to experience workforce shortages that affect their ability to deliver service, King County Parks and King County Metro worked together closely to monitor and assess how to best bring back the Trailhead Direct service.
To protect each other, the land, and delicate ecosystems, King County Parks encourages you to #RecreateResponsibly by taking these things into account when planning your Trailhead Direct adventure this summer:
- Plan ahead. Pack food and water and bring essentials such as hand sanitizer. Give yourself extra time to catch your return trip.
- Protect one another. If you’re feeling sick, please do not use Trailhead Direct or other transit modes.
- Play it safe. Stay within your limits to prevent burdening search and rescue teams and health care providers.
- Explore responsibly. Be mindful of where you’re choosing to take a trip and your impact on the communities you visit. Always keep pets on leash.
- Leave no trace. Stay on the trail. Respect the land and water, as well as Native and local communities. Pack out everything you bring with you, including trash and pet waste.
- Build an inclusive outdoors. Be an active part of making the outdoors safe and welcoming for people of all races, backgrounds, and abilities.
Metro no longer requires masks on transit, including Trailhead Direct. However, Public Health – Seattle & King County continues to recommend wearing a high-quality, well-fitting mask on transit and in crowded indoor spaces. Many of Metro’s systemwide enhancements will stay in place permanently. These include daily disinfecting, fleetwide air filter upgrades, and encouraging contactless payment.
Subscribe to our Trailhead Direct newsletter, and follow along on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to stay in the loop on any updates.
Trailhead Direct 
Fabulous to see Trailhead Direct coming back in 2022. Disappointed to see it scaled back to only the Mt. Si route and Cap Hill, since these are a lot more challenging routes, but I understand there is a lot of budget needs. Last year I saw a lot more people participating, to the point where the shuttle was replaced with a full size bus.