Iron Goat Trail

The Iron Goat Trail is a hiking trail built on the original Great Northern Railway grade between Scenic and Wellington. The trail exists due to the work of hundreds of volunteers with Volunteers for Outdoor Washington and the U. S. Forest Service. The initial trailhead at Martin Creek and first four miles of the trail were dedicated and opened October 2, 1993.  There are now trailheads for the Iron Goat Trail at Scenic, Martin Creek and Wellington.

The Iron Goat Trail is measured in original Great Northern mileage from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Scenic is just west of milepost 1720. The map below shows the points of interest along the Iron Goat Trail.

Milepost 1720
Twin Tunnels
Rock Cut
Milepost 1718
Corea
Martin Creek
Tunnel #14
Embro
Windy Point
Milepost 1713
Milepost 1712
Concrete Snowshed
Wellington
Switchbacks and the First Cascade Tunnel

At the Scenic trailhead, a former Great Northern steel caboose is on display. Great Northern X294 was built by GN’s St. Cloud shops in October 1951. It later became Burlington Northern #11319 in December 1970 and was retired by 1990. It ended up being purchased by Henry Welzel and was stored on his property in Puyallup, Washington. It was acquired from his estate and on October 6, 2004, it was moved to Skykomish and was temporarily stored next to the Skykomish depot before being moved to its current location on August 28, 2006.

Photo by Cliff West, 2007

The Scenic trailhead was completed on October 7, 2006. A new crossover trail provides a direct connection between Scenic and Windy Point.

Continue to Milepost 1720…