Mountains to Sound Greenway
The Mountains to Sound Greenway is a 1.5 million-acre landscape situated in the Pacific Northwest. On March 12, 2019, it was designated a National Heritage Area, to be managed by the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, as part of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act.
Framed by the urban areas of Seattle and Ellensburg, the Mountains to Sound Greenway is woven together by the historic transportation corridors and an extensive network of trails that link the public to the landscape. The Greenway is shaped by watershed boundaries: the Yakima to the east, the Cedar to the south, Snoqualmie and Lake Washington to the north, and Puget Sound to the west.
The Greenway as it is today was first envisioned in 1990, when a group of citizens hiked from the Cascade Crest alongside Interstate 90, through the forest all the way. The Seattle region was on the verge of a significant economic boom, and unchecked sprawl threatened much of the region. In 1991, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust was founded to work toward a shared vision of keeping some of these natural lands within a connected, multi-purpose Greenway between Seattle and Central Washington.
