I was on my way to Seattle and was looking for a spot to take a break and stretch my legs.  I knew that there were multiple hikes that I could go on through the mountains, but as I was on my way to Olympic National Park, I didn’t really feel like doing your “average” forest hike. I pulled over to the side of the road to pull up some local trails, and I found one that ran through an abandoned railway tunnel, straight through a mountain. With no lights, and no windows, it seemed just like the obscure thing I was looking for. I was luckily only about 20 min away, so I put the car in gear and headed off the highway, excited for what I would find.

Upon arrival, I parked and headed a half mile down the trail towards the tunnel. As I got to it, I was quite amazed by how vast the tunnel seemed. I could see a couple of hundred feet in, but after that, there was only complete darkness besides the couple of small cell phone flashlights that I could see way in the distance. I started to hike and quickly lost all sense of direction. Luckily, I have always been obsessed with sound, and I channeled my inner DareDevil and used my ears to navigate. I was recording the hike on my phone, so turning on the flashlight wasn’t an option. I would have to listen to the reverb from droplets of water falling from the ceiling to navigate. The closer I got to the walls, the louder the initial echo would be. I’m proud to say I only walked into a wall once.

After about 15 minutes of walking, I started to wonder how far this thing really went. I kept walking and finally saw a small dot of light, seemingly no bigger than a pin head, in the distance. “That’s the end!” I thought to myself. Well, that was true, but it wasn’t nearly as close as I thought it was. Slowly, the dot grew larger and larger and finally, I emerged on the other side greeted by a waterfall. I finally had service again so I looked to see how long the tunnel was and was surprised to find that it was 2.25 mi! I had never expected that but boy was it fun. But that meant I had to walk another 2.25 back through it. At least this time I would be able to use my phone light.

Closest Supercharger: North Bend WA 256 mi

46600 SE North Bend Way

Snoqualmie Tunnel

61 Kendall Pl, Snoqualmie Pass, WA 98068