Forum Index > Trail Talk > Was the Taylor River Road ever open to the end? Have pics?
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Brucester
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Joined: 02 Jun 2013
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Brucester
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PostThu Feb 22, 2024 3:48 pm 
Looking at maps and wondering if there are pictures of Taylor River Road back in the day?

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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



Joined: 13 Feb 2007
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Location: Stuck in the middle
puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
PostMon Feb 26, 2024 1:05 pm 
Brian Curtis has some photos from the Taylor River area on Flickr. One of them is of the Marten Creek bridge along the old road. The Taylor River road was opened to vehicles sometime in the late 1940s (it was a logging RR before that). The big concrete bridge at Big Creek on the Taylor River trail was built in 1965 in anticipation that the Lake Dorothy Highway would be built to connect to Highway 2. Fortunately that never happened, probably because of the efforts to create the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The Taylor River road was closed between 1979 and 1981. The bridge at the Taylor River trailhead burned about that time and the current concrete bridge wasn't built until 1988.

Mid Fork Rocksflickr

Now I Fly, fourteen410
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Randito
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Joined: 27 Jul 2008
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Randito
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PostMon Feb 26, 2024 1:50 pm 
We drove the Taylor River road to end (past Otter Falls and Lipsey Lake) to back pack 2.5 miles into Snoqualmie Lake back in the late '60s. My dad drove a 1966 VW bus with the my sisters , myself and another dad and his two kids. When we arrived at Snoqualmie Lake we found a smoldering campfire that had migrated through duff a long distance. We spent several hours dousing the smoldering fire using our #10 coffee can cook pot and the hand axe we packed in for preparing firewood. There might be some photos in the family photo box my older sister took possession of after we moved our folks to assisted living.

zimmertr, Waterman
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lopper
off-route



Joined: 22 Jan 2002
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lopper
off-route
PostMon Feb 26, 2024 3:35 pm 
Here is a page from my 1970 100 Hikes book. At that time, the road was drivable by a city car to the Snoq Lk / Nordrum Lk trailhead and road terminus.
In the mid 70s the road deteriorated. We used bicycles and Honda Trail 90s to get to the road end several times in that era. In 1977 we tried a Treen ascent from the slope opposite Big Creek. Soundly defeated by over-the-head underbrush and cliff bands. On the way back to our car at the MFK, we lucked out by catching a ride with two guys in an International Scout. Piled in back and bounced down the ragged road. All the way back across the Taylor river (bridge out that year) THROUGH the Taylor river. The water was low, it was October. We found a better way up Treen the next year (Green Ridge). Picture.
Also, here is a picture of the big-old and small-new trail signs circa 1980.

thunderhead, Now I Fly, Cyclopath, rossb
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Schroder
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Schroder
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PostMon Feb 26, 2024 7:28 pm 
That road, like the Middle Fork, Monte Cristo, & many others were casualties of the floods of 1980. My memory is that before that happened it was only a mile and a half to Snoqualmie Lake from the car.

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Nancyann
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Nancyann
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PostWed Feb 28, 2024 10:19 pm 
I went up the Taylor River Road twice in 1970 with my bf at the time. The first time, we crossed the Taylor River on a little bridge and parked at the base of Treen Peak. It was a few miles from the Nordrum Lake trailhead. Then we hauled our backpacks up Treen to a waterfall that had a rope dangling from it. From there we went cross country to Lake Carole. I honestly don’t know how I made it back down that waterfall, but it was worth the effort because Lake Carole was lovely. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures. Later in the summer, we drove up the Taylor again all the way to the Nordrum Lake trailhead. The trail seemed tedious and boring, especially after the Lake Carole route, and Carole was much prettier!

ALW Hiker
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Forum Index > Trail Talk > Was the Taylor River Road ever open to the end? Have pics?
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