Located east of Granite Falls Washington on the Mount Loop Highway is a popular hiking trail gem of the Snohomish County Parks deparment
known as the Old Robe Trail.
This trail follows portions of what was the Monte Cristo Railroad. Built in 1893 to bring ore down from the
town of Monte Cristo to the processing facilities in Everett it travelled along side the Stilliguamish river. While
the views must have been spectacular at the time the implementation of this particular route was soundly in error. The river
and mother nature were intent upon re-taking what was taken and after many costly closures due to blockages the line was
eventually closed down and the rail way material sold to a Japanese firm to be melted down.
Thankfully for us, the history of the place remains behind. During the creation of the rail line, 6 tunnels were placed along
the route. From the Old Robe Trail trail entrace you are able to visit tunnels 6 through 3 in their current state of affairs.
Tunnel 6 is the first you come upon and is roughly 250 feet long with a slight bend at the far side. Tunnel five is roughly 30 feet long and for most
day hikers this is where the trail ends due to a major slide on the far west side.
If you do press on, after a short while you will come upon what was tunnel 4. Daylighted by the railroad, it now is home to a large
rock slide at the west end which must be climbed over in order to continue.
A very short walk after this you will run into what many refer to as "the bridge". This is actually just a retaining wall that due to erosion
and slides on it's northern half now appears to hang out over a large gully. There used to be a rough trail on the northern forest side
of the gully that you could utilize to get across the expanse but it appears to have been erased by the elements. If you are daring/foolish enough
to walk across, about 15 seconds later you will land on top of tunnel 3. All you see of Tunnel 3 is now the TOP of tunnel 3 as yet
another major slide has all but covered up the easter entrace side. As of July 2009 it's still physically possible to walk up to it and look down
into it but this tunnel has collapsed on the far side as well so I would not suggest going inside of it.
I would not recommend going beyond tunnel 3 from this end to attempt to find tunnel 2 and 1 as the trail is basically non-existant and dangerous.
I re-took this hike in July of 2009 because I heard reports that a tree had fallen onto the retaining wall near tunnel 3. I can in fact
verify this has happened. You do have to step over the tree in order to get across which makes the walk across that much more
"interesting" shall we say. (See picture above of retaining wall to see fallen tree)
The information i've been able to get my hands onto says that Tunnel #2 was also daylighted, and that tunnel #1, a 900 foot long monster
often called "the kissing tunnel" still does exist though it sounds like at least one side of it has closed due to cave in. I also read that
a 7th tunnel was being dug but the hillside they were doing it in was full of air and sand pockets which made for dangerous digging and eventually
they gave up on it and simply went around the hillside instead of through it.
I have hiked and photographed this trail for going on 20 years now and have a rather large collection of pictures of which I will start
to share on this page. Be sure to check back to see what's new.
Driving Directions: The trail head is located East of Granite Falls Washington on the Mountain Loop Highway Roughly 6.5
miles outside of Granite falls. The trailhead, marked by a large brick sign is just across the road from the Green Mountain Road
turn off on the right hand side of the road.
It's pretty hard to miss, mostly because the trail is popular and there are
generally cars already parked along side the road.
Perhaps one of the more interesting reasons to take this hike is simply due to the fact mother nature is intent upon re-taking the area. I especially
love to go after there is a major storm as there is often new trees and slides that change the topography of the hike.
One of the more interesting items I've uncovered was this rail clamp. I've been hiking this trail for 20 years now and it was just this year that I first noticed
this clamp. It appears that due to a slide it actually got uncovered so again, taking the hike each year or even at different times during the year
can produce different results and interesting things to photograph.
It is possible to see signs of other portions of the rail line along the Mount Loop Highway. Near the gated entrace to the start of the hike to Monte
Cristo, for example, on your left you can see the rail grade. At another spot is a turn off from the road where if you keep your eyes peeled you
can see what's left of the supports for a bridge which once crossed the river, on each side.
As I mentioned above, this is a great hike to take several times during the year because due to storm damange and the elements your often going to
see different things. As an example, I took this hike in September 2006 and the West end of Tunnel 6 was clear. When I re-took the hike in July of
2007, you can see a major tree slide that has ever since plugged up the far end of tunnel 6. These down trees have not been removed. It is easily walked through/over so dont let this discourage you
from going further down the trail.
Below is a youtube video with pictures of my July 2009 hike of the trail.
Update: Took the hike again on 1/16/2011 and hikers need to be aware that the trail has washed out after you get down to
the water. The trail used to run right along the edge but it has washed away. You now have to bust a path through the
brush. Very do-able but people with small children should be aware. As an extra treat, I now have visual and photo proof that
the river DOES rise high enough to get up onto the tracks. Insane crazy. I'll post some updated pics later this week.
- Scott
