Continue past the new trail for about 0.25 miles to the old one. After leaving the car, reach Mailbox Peak Road from the east side of the parking lot. The lot does fill up on weekends so try to arrive early-and don’t forget to bring your Discover Pass, which is required to park here. Turn right, and then continue on Middle Fork Road for 2.5 miles to the paved turnoff that goes up a short hill to the Mailbox Peak parking lot. To get to the trailhead, take I-90 exit 34 to head north on 468th Ave SE for about 0.5 miles, until you reach Middle Fork Road. Today Mailbox Peak is considered one of the most popular, and most difficult, objectives in the I-90 Corridor (though since 2014 there is also the option of taking a new and longer but gentler path to the top). Over the next three decades, word of the tough trek took off as local hikers began to recommend the ascent as a good training ground for bigger summits in the Cascades, such as Mount Rainier. While he was the director of Valley Camp, a Lutheran family retreat center that meets near the mountain’s base, he sent teenagers on missions to sign the summit register he left in the box. The trail’s roots trace back to 1960s, when Seattle postman Carl Heine lugged an actual mailbox to the peak’s summit. This hike can be rooty and technical on the way up.
One thing that your plan must include are a pair of good hikers like La Sportiva’s Synthesis Mid GTX boots found at REI. Mailbox Peak is a bucket list trek that is achievable-and even enjoyable (thigh burn and all)-for most local hikers who arrive at the trailhead with an appropriate plan and attitude. But don’t let the climb’s formidable reputation scare you away. Rocketing up an elevation gain of 4,000 feet over just 2.5 miles, the route doesn’t waste time on switchbacks it takes the straightest, steepest approach to the summit. No Seattle-area hike is more legendary than the old trail up Mailbox Peak.
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