Licorice Fern Trail, Indian Trail & Far Country — Sunday, Apr. 20, 2014

Issaquah Alps > Cougar Mountain

I have been hiking all over Cougar Mountain for 20 years and for some reason have never seen Far Country Falls before. The WTA Trail News email this morning had an article on Waterfalls and Far Country was featured so I thought that I'd check it out. I decided to approach from the lower Licorice Fern trailhead to make the journey a little longer and lonelier than approaching from Red Town. The trailhead is on SE 112th just off of May Valley Road. The trailhead is an obscure, but signed turnout on the right just after 112th turns left to become 169th. This section of Licorice Fern trail is seldom used and very pretty. It is in a deep mossy valley with lots of bright green understory vegetation and nice mature trees. At 1.2 mi you cross SE Licorice Way and pick up the Licorice Fern trail on the other side. There are still a fair number of Trillium in bloom. The Licorice Fern trail intersects the Indian Trail at 1.5 mi and near the Indian Trail trailhead. You could start at the Indian Trail trailhead but then you would miss the best part of the trail and some exercise. At 2 mi is the turnoff for the Far Country Trail(not the falls). 0.1 mi further is the signed turnoff for the Far Country Falls. Right now the flow is pretty descent and the rocks are covered with moss. We also did a short side trip to Far Country Lookout to get a little more mileage and elevation gain. The view there is not great. 5 mi RT and 500 ft elevation gain. Map: http://your.kingcounty.gov/ftp/gis/web/vmc/recreation/BCT_CougarMtn_brochure.pdf