# Good rides for a gravel newbie in western washington?



## Migen21

Hey all,

Looking for some nice long gravel road rides within an hour or two drive of the Seattle area (Bothell). I'm just finishing up a gravel bike build and hope to get some miles 'off the beaten path' this summer.

thanks


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## SwiftSolo

There is a huge variety of good mountain gravel roads within 2 hours of Seattle that it would be hard to know where to begin. Maybe the place to start in just off of highway 410 above Enumclaw and then move further up 410 as summer approaches. This place is riddled with old logging roads with great views and it will take a lifetime to explore all of them within 2 hour of Seattle. You're if for a great time.


Migen21 said:


> Hey all,
> 
> Looking for some nice long gravel road rides within an hour or two drive of the Seattle area (Bothell). I'm just finishing up a gravel bike build and hope to get some miles 'off the beaten path' this summer.
> 
> thanks


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## 2ride

Tolt Pipeline Trail... to Snoqualmie Valley Trail... to Iron Horse trail... you can go all the way to Snoqualmie Pass. Tolt starts in Woodinville, which is really close to Bothell.


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## single1x1

https://www.strava.com/activities/162147122 Here's I ride I like to do a couple times a year. Would do it more often, but I no longer live in the area, I'm in Kirkland now, but Startup/Sultan area is not too far of a drive from Kirkland or Bothell, about 45 minutes perhaps. I park near the tennis courts in Startup, ride the short distance to Kellogg lake road then take the gravel road to the right with the gate, this goes about 8 miles uphill to Wallace Lake, then I go down gravel roads in a tree farm..legal to ride bikes in, and this goes downhill back toward Kellogg Lk road, but further away from HYWY2. You can then ride towards Sultan basin RD and I ride some gravel/easy trails in the Sultan watershed, you can also ride all the way up to Spada lake the reservoir for Snohomish county, a bit of paved ridding before the pavement ends,and more real climbing begins, quite a few options out there, along with several dead ends you can find. As the strava link shows this ride had a lot of climbing, 1,000-1,200 in the first 8 miles!! Also not going to run into a lot of people, but you should also be prepared for whatever, so food, repair stuff, water etc, on this ride I did a pre ride cooler drop so we had some good lunch and water to refill our bottles after the first 25 miles, and had a snack when we passed it again on the way back. I wouldn't suggest trying it with smaller then a 30c tire, I've used the 35c Conti speed cyclocross tire with tubes and the 38C specialized trigger , tubeless.


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## Migen21

2ride said:


> Tolt Pipeline Trail... to Snoqualmie Valley Trail... to Iron Horse trail... you can go all the way to Snoqualmie Pass. Tolt starts in Woodinville, which is really close to Bothell.


Wow, I did not realize all of those trails link up. I'll definitely look into this. Thanks!


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## masont

Actually, the Tolt starts on the Bothell/Kirkland border if you want to get technical about it.


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