Snoqualmie Pass

The Summit at Snoqualmie is a recreation area in the northwest United States, located on Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. It provides alpine skiing and snowboarding, Nordic skiing, mountain biking, winter tubing, and scenic lift rides. Owned and managed by Boyne Resorts, it is 52 miles (80 km) east of downtown Seattle on Interstate 90. The Summit consists of four base areas that used to be individually owned and operated resorts. Alpental, Summit West (formerly Snoqualmie Summit), Summit Central (formerly Ski Acres), and Summit East (formerly Hyak and PacWest), border Lake Keechelus on the East and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness on the West/North. The Summit at Snoqualmie is the closest ski area to Seattle, about an hour away. Ski Lifts, Inc., the operator of what became Summit West, acquired the other three resorts. Booth Creek Ski acquired the properties in 1997. Booth Creek sold The Summit to CNL Lifestyle in 2006, but continued to operate the resort under a lease. Booth Creek sold The Summit lease to Boyne Resorts in 2007. CNL Lifestyle sold Booth Creek in a batch of resorts to Och-Ziff Capital Management in 2016. Boyne purchased the ski resort in March 2018. The vertical drop ranges from 2,280 ft (690 m) at Alpental, to 765 ft (233 m) at Summit West. Combined, the four base areas have 19 chairlifts and 5 surface lifts. The resort is open seven days and six nights per week.

Guye Peak is a mountain in the northwest United States in the Cascade Range of Washington, east of Seattle. Named for Francis M. Guye, who held an iron mining claim on it in the 1880s, it lies in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area and overlooks Snoqualmie Pass from the north. Guye Peak was first climbed on October 6, 1912, by Charles Hazlehurst, Hector Abel, Paul Dubuar, and Mary Hard. The climb is 2,000 feet (600 m) from the pass valley and has mixed rock climbing and scrambling, ranging from class 3 to class 5.6. It is popular partly because of easy access from Interstate 90. Like other hiking experiences in the region, Guye Peak has wet-climate hazards such as mossy or otherwise slippery rocks in the summer and avalanches in the winter. At least eight climbers have died in falls on Guye Peak, including the mathematician Oded Schramm in 2008.

Franklin Falls is a waterfall on the South fork of the Snoqualmie River, the first of three major waterfalls on the South Fork Snoqualmie River. The falls are located near Snoqualmie Pass in King County, Washington, United States, between the north and south lanes of Interstate 90, just east of exit 47. The falls actually consist of three tiers, totaling about 135 feet (41 m). The first drop is a very scenic 15-foot (4.6 m) block-shaped fall. The second drop is a 25-foot (7.6 m) fanning cascade. The final drop begins as a 25-foot slide, which bends to the right, then plunges over the final 70-foot (21 m) drop seen from the base of the falls. The falls are popular canyoneering destination. The upper two drops are north of the freeway.

Alpental, named after the German word for alpine valley, is both a valley in eastern King County, Washington, United States, and part of a ski area in the valley. The valley is about 50 miles (80 km) east of Seattle, Washington and is north of Snoqualmie Pass, in the Washington Cascades. It is a popular outdoor recreation destination in summer and winter. The ski area is one of four areas that make up The Summit at Snoqualmie.

The Snoqualmie Tunnel is a former railroad tunnel near Snoqualmie Pass in the U.S. state of Washington, located east of Seattle. The tunnel crosses the Cascade Range about three miles (5 km) south of the pass, which is used by Interstate 90, on the border between King County and Kittitas County. It is 11,894 feet (2.253 mi; 3.625 km) long and is at an approximate elevation of 2,600 feet (790 m) above sea level, just north of Keechelus Lake. Its east portal is at Hyak. The tunnel was originally constructed for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in the early 1910s and was abandoned in 1980. It now serves as part of a rail trail in Iron Horse State Park, known officially as the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. The trail was formerly known as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and commonly called the Iron Horse Trail. A major renovation to the walls, ceiling, and path were completed in July 2011 after a two-year closure.

Snoqualmie Pass is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It includes the unincorporated community of Hyak. The population was 311 at the 2010 census.The CDP is named for the mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 across the Cascade Range, which itself is named for the Snoqualmie tribe, a Native American tribe indigenous to the Snoqualmie Valley located west of the pass. The portion of the mountain pass west of the height of land, in King County, is not part of the Snoqualmie Pass CDP. Based on per capita income, Snoqualmie Pass ranks 8th of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. It is also the highest rank achieved in Kittitas County.

Kendall Peak is a mountain located on the county line separating King County and Kittitas County of Washington state. It is within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness on the crest of the Cascade Range. Kendall Peak is situated two miles northeast of Snoqualmie Pass on land managed by Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Precipitation runoff on the east side of the mountain drains into Silver Creek and makes its way to the Columbia River via Yakima River, whereas the west side of the mountain drains into the South Fork Snoqualmie River via Commonwealth Creek. The Pacific Crest Trail traverses its west flank and an exposed section of the trail called Kendall Katwalk has seen tragic deaths over the years, most recently September 5, 2018. The nearest higher peak is Red Mountain, 0.9 miles (1.4 km) to the north-northwest.

The Mountains to Sound Greenway is a 1.5 million-acre landscape situated in the Pacific Northwest. On March 12, 2019, it was designated a National Heritage Area, to be managed by the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, as part of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. In 1998, it became the first National Scenic Byway to be designated in Washington. The corridor stretches along Interstate 90 between Seattle and Ellensburg, following several historic transportation routes and a network of bicycling and hiking trails. Its formal boundaries are along several watersheds: the Yakima to the east, the Cedar to the south, Snoqualmie and Lake Washington to the north, and Puget Sound to the west. The Greenway was first envisioned in 1990, when a group of citizens hiked from the Cascade Crest alongside Interstate 90. In 1991, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust was founded to prevent the encroachment of urban sprawl on the natural areas near Snoqualmie Pass and to use them to connect Seattle and Central Washington. Its creation has been criticized for attracting public funds that could have been used on other ecological protection projects.

Hyak is an unincorporated community located on Snoqualmie Pass in Kittitas County, Washington. It is located within the Snoqualmie Pass CDP. Hyak was established around 1915 at the eastern portal of the Snoqualmie Pass Milwaukee Road Railroad tunnel. Originally a train station, the community began to grow in the 1930s when the railroad built a world class ski area. Today there are approximately 200 full-time residences in Hyak and another 100 part-time. Hyak is a Chinook Jargon word meaning "hurry", "fast", or "swift".

Milwaukee Ski Bowl was an alpine ski area in the northwest United States in Washington, which operated between 1937 and 1950. It was southeast of Seattle in the Cascade Range at Hyak, on the east side of Snoqualmie Pass. Executives of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("The Milwaukee Road") built the ski area in the fall of 1937, including a large two-story day lodge and one surface lift near the east portal of the railroad's Snoqualmie Tunnel, just north of Keechelus Lake. It was originally the "Snoqualmie Ski Bowl" until it closed at the start of World War II. It reopened in 1946 as the "Milwaukee Ski Bowl" to avoid confusion with The Snoqualmie Summit ski area, two miles (3 km) away at the top of the pass. It was a major ski area for its era, comparable to but not as luxurious as Sun Valley, the Union Pacific Railroad's new resort in central Idaho.In early 1938, there was night skiing and lift tickets were a dollar a day, or ten cents per individual trip, for the cable surface lift, which vertically climbed 300 feet (90 m). Five runs were in the bowl, named for the railroad's popular trains of the era: Hiawatha, Chippewa, Arrow, Pioneer, and Olympian; additional lifts were added over time.The area proved to be popular when the Seattle Times newspaper sponsored a free ski school for high school students from Seattle and Tacoma. A round trip train ticket cost one dollar in 1940 with lift tickets for fifty cents. The 200-foot (60 m) lodge could hold one thousand people and concessions were operated by the Ben Paris complex of Seattle.A Class-A ski jump was built in 1941 and was said to be the largest in North America. National championship events in ski jumping were held here, including the 1948 Olympic team tryouts, held the preceding spring.In 1949, the lodge burned down in the early hours of Friday, December 2; the ski area reopened a month later, and operated out of numerous railroad cars on a new spur line for the rest of the season, its last.The ski area reopened under new ownership in 1959 as Hyak, and continues as Summit East. It has the lowest base elevation of the four Summit at Snoqualmie ski areas, at approximately 2,600 feet (790 m) above sea level. The railroad later went bankrupt; its former right-of-way in the Cascades is a rail trail, Iron Horse State Park.

Snoqualmie Mountain is the tallest peak in the immediate vicinity of Snoqualmie Pass in the North Cascade Range of Washington state, U.S. Its shape is often described as "amorphous" or "blob-like", although it does display a steep north face dropping down to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. The boundary of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness crosses the summit of Snoqualmie Mountain.

Denny Mountain is summit near Snoqualmie Pass in Washington state. The Alpental ski area is located on the mountain's eastern flank. The mountain is named after Arthur A. Denny of the Denny Party, who oversaw the construction of the Snoqualmie Pass Road, which later became I-90, and which runs along the mountain's southern base.