The Burke-Gilman Trail is a 27-mile trail, mostly flat, in the Seattle, Washington metro area. It winds through urban areas in the north end of Seattle, from Ballard to the University District, and then north to the end of Lake Washington. There it becomes the Sammamish River Trail, and follows the Sammamish River southwards, ending at Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington.
Thanks to Felix Kasza for sending a GPS trace of this route, which has improved the map considerably (though I could not import all the points in the trace, as it would have made the site perform poorly).
Categories: 20 to 50 Miles &Flat &No Solitude &Paved &Suburban &Urban
States: Washington
Last Modified: May 29, 2009
(19 votes, average: 3.53 out of 5)
Loading ...If the map has markers, click them for extra information. You can also double-click anywhere on the map to get driving directions to that point. Note:Trail routes shown are approximate! If you have a GPS trace of this trail, leave a comment below with your email address (which will not be published), and I'll contact you. Thanks!
Elevation profile of route: feet above sea level vs. distance traveled (approximate). Green marker on map above shows which end is designated as start of route.
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Is there a way to download the GPS trace of this route?
Thanks!
Sorry, I don’t have that GPS trace any more. On my To Do list is to make a way to get a GPX generated from the same database that puts the blue lines on the map, but I haven’t done it yet.
Maybe I’ll have some time over the holidays to work on this, we’ll see!
Jennifer
Thanks! Thank you for the quick reply too. :)
Hello, I ride this route quite often between Redmond and my home in North Seattle. The best thing about it is that there are no stop lights to wait at. It makes the trip quick and satisfying and there isn\’t too much street riding. If you want more info on the best routes around Seattle, see info on the great Seattle and King County bike maps on my blog at http://www.chikenz.com/Blogsite/?page_id=17
I have to disagree with a couple minor points on Dave\’s post above me. There are indeed several places where the rider waits at stop lights. Two of them in fact are in Kenmore at the northeast corner of the lake. In addition, there are at least three stop lights in the U-District and a couple on the street ride in Ballard. In fact, I can see why people in that area are anxious to get this connecting piece of trail. The street ride, while short, is a bit lame. But all-in-all for a ride of 31+ miles that travels through a major urban area, it\’s got very few stop lights to contend with and almost all stop signs are located on the western side of the lake.
The problem I have with the Burke-Gillman trail is roots pushing up underneath the asphalt making a bumping ride in places.
Yes, there are some spots like that! King County has been making some repairs the last couple of years though, and I’ve heard that Lake Forest Park finally stopped blocking trail repairs, so some of the worst sections up at the top end of Lake Washington will hopefully get fixed.
–Jennifer
This seems a bit late now but some of our readers may not know. They are redoing the two mile section in Lake Forest Park from Logboom Park and 145th. The plan is to shut this section of trail down completely for SIX months while they redo. Last report is starting time is late May, 2011 or early June 2011 and any detour route is sketchy. In fact, they recommend you take the bus along this stretch. In fact, at the time of this writing, a detour route has not been officially selected.
http://www.cityoflfp.com/city/planning/bg-trail/default.html
It’s official. The BG trail is scheduled to be closed June 15th, 2011 through December 15th, 2011. Yep. That’s 6 months to fix 2 miles.
I don’t understand why they would start this construction right at the beginning of summer.
Indeed, it’s an interesting choice on what must be the most popular bike trail in the Seattle area… but on the other hand, most paving-related projects in the Northwest have to be done in summer, due to weather concerns, so maybe that is it? (Trying to give them too much benefit of the doubt? Perhaps…)
The Burke-Gilman trail reconstruction through Lake Forest Park was completed a couple weeks ago. Sadly it makes the riding the rest of the trail a disappointment now. They did a magnificent job. If you never rode it before you wouldn’t appreciate it the way I do considering it’s part of my daily commute. It’s only 2 miles long but you’ll know when you get on it and when you get off it.