When I first stumbled across King County's Historic and Scenic Corridors Project online, I made up my mind to ride my bicycle along all 12 routes this year.
Researching a ride I did late last week along the Old Sunset Highway toward Snoqualmie Pass, I'm discovering that I already frequently ride my bike along parts of a historic automobile route that date back nearly 100 years.
The Sunset Highway was the evocative name given to a road that connected Seattle with the Idaho border via Snoqualmie Pass in 1915. The Sunset road name survives in some sections of streets and highways that I've been riding for years in Renton and Issaquah without knowing the route's early history.
Those suburban Seattle parts of the Sunset Highway aren't designated historic or scenic, however, because of the changes they've undergone over the years.
King County designates three sections alongside I-90 as part of the old Sunset Highway Historic and Scenic Corridor — Homestead Valley Road past Olallie State Park, Tinkham Road (aka Forest Service 55) and Denny Creek Road (Forest Service 58). [See a map of the corridor.]
We've all seen these names on exits as we buzz along I-90 toward Snoqualmie Pass. I discovered last week that it's worth pulling off here with a bicycle for the scenery and a slow ride through history.
Tinkham Road
My exploration started at exit 42, the west end of Tinkham Road. This is a hard-packed dirt road with plenty of potholes. In summer, I suspect it's dusty. With care, I could have survived on my road bike, but I was much more comfortable riding my fat-tire Rockhopper.
This road cuts through the thick forest alongside the scenic South Fork of the Snoqualmie River where campers gather. The road crosses several streams; one stream crosses over the road (see video above). About four miles in, loggers have been busy in the woods and the road is pretty hacked up.
The Tinkham Road section is part of the old wagon road that crossed over Snoqualmie Pass beginning in 1867. When I crossed over the Snoqualmie River at Exit 47, I entered the old route of the Sunset Highway, which dated back to 1915.
Denny Creek Road
This part of the route, Denny Creek Road, is paved. It winds uphill to the Denny Creek Forest Service campground (closed for the winter) and meanders up switchbacks to the Alpental section of the Snoqualmie ski resort.
I didn't quite make it that far. There was still plenty of snow on the road at these elevations from a spring snowstorm that had swept through here the previous week, and I was running out of time. I did see a hiking trail on the old wagon road (left), and pedaled up the switchbacks of the old Sunset Highway that replaced the steeper climb of the wagon road.
Stopping in the forest, I could imagine a time when old cars struggled up and over this narrow road out of the flatlands.
Corridor history
The history of the corridor dates back to 1867; earlier than that if you consider the Native American traces through this area.
Tinkham Road was part of the old wagon road that connected Seattle with Ellensburg in 1867, one of the earliest connections between Seattle and Eastern Washington. It's success was short-lived, however, as railroads started serving the cities on the Puget Sound beginning in 1887.
Then a transcontinental automobile race held in conjunction with the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909 sparked interest in improving the route for motorcars. The Sunset Highway was dedicated in 1915. Later, in 1921, the switchbacks near the summit were abandoned as a new alignment was created for the Sunset Highway that enabled it to be open year around. This high elevation section became the present Denny Creek Road.
The Sunset Highway continued west to North Bend (along the current path of I-90), then Fall City, then over to Preston (on what is now the Preston-Fall City Road), then through Issaquah and Renton to the south end of Lake Washington where it veered north to Seattle.
Check this link for more information and archive photos from the Old Sunset Highway Heritage Corridor project prepared by King County. The state Department of Transportation also has a short history of the Sunset Highway at HistoryLink.
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