This is the time to see Far Country Falls! It's different from Coal Creek Falls and others around here, because it's in a narrow channel that is quite overgrown, so the upper part is almost invisible during dry times.

I hiked up Coal Creek from the Coal Creek Parkway end, through the Red Town trailhead, Wildside Trail, to Far Country Falls, back via Indian Trail and Red Town Trail and Coal Creek again, about 8 miles round trip. You could certainly make it a lot shorter by starting and ending at Red Town TH.

The Red Town area has some seasonal ponds that are presently home to chirping frogs. It's amazing how loud those little critters can be at times. Beavers have built a dam near the intersection of the Wildside and Rainbow Town trails, creating an expansive pond where I saw a couple of mallards.

The Coal Creek trail is typical for this time of year: muddy in spots, generally when it's close to the creek but also on some shady slopes. Poles could be helpful in a few steep places.

I met about 20 people, 14 dogs (only 2 leashed but all well-behaved), and saw a half dozen abandoned poop bags (ugh).

Waterfalls, wildlife, and more spring flowers making an appearance! Cougar Mountain trails were nice today for running and hiking. Not sure when it last rained here, but the trails were a nice soft consistency without being overly muddy. Did a 7.5 mile, 1435 ft elevation gain loop today involving portions of 14 different trails and visiting 3 currently flowing waterfalls (Coal Creek, Far Country, and Doughty). Highly recommend downloading a copy of the King County Parks map brochure of Cougar Mountain. Don’t expect to always have cell service here. From Sky Country the route involved the trails Nike Horse, Cave Hole, Coal Creek Falls, Quarry, Indian, Far Country, Shy Bear, Deceiver, Long View Peak, Shy Bear again to Fred’s Railroad, East Fork, Mine Shaft, Clay Pit Road with a quick visit to Clay Pit before heading back to parking via Old Man’s Trail. There are many options to shorten or lengthen this route.

Followed the "Longview Peak and Far Country Lookout Loop" route as indicated on AllTrails.

The Sky Country Trailhead gate leading to the parking lot was closed when we arrived at 8am and remained closed when we left at 1pm. Parked on the side of 166th Way SE along with about a dozen other cars and walked about 400ft to the TH.

The majority of the trail is covered in solid, packed snow. I would say traction gear is nice but not necessary--had little to no difficulties walking the trail with just my boots. As implied earlier, it was kinda busy! Passed by many joggers, many dogs, a number of other hikers, and a family or two.

It's definitely not the most scenic hike out there, but I had an enjoyable time! The full loop with a quick sidetrek to Doughty Falls totalled about 7.9mi with 1200ft of elevation gain.

Started at the 171st Ave Trailhead and hiked the 0.75 miles to Far Country Falls on a well-maintained trail. A signed spur leads to the bottom of the waterfall, an unsigned spur leads to the top. The falls had a decent flow - to make the hike more interesting I scrambled up and around the rocks. We saw a few other walkers out, but overall pretty quiet.

I was curious about the trail conditions on Cougar Mtn after Tuesday's wind storm. The trail to Coal Creek Falls had only one tree across it, which was easy to go over or under. The Shy Bear trail had significantly more debris including one spot with multiple trees down that required scampering over the top to get through. The Far Country trail was in pretty good shape. The De Leo Wall trail had multiple trees down where it crosses over a significant hill but none of them were difficult to cross. In general, trails that cross higher hills have more trees down than those in creek valleys. While it will take some time to clear the fallen trees, I didn't see any major trail damage and most obstacles are relatively easy to cross if you are an average hiker.