Robe Canyon Historic Trail Park, Historic railway trail park near Granite Falls, United States.
Robe Canyon Historic Trail Park covers 970 acres along the Stillaguamish River east of Granite Falls, where the trail runs on the bed of the 1892 Everett and Monte Cristo Railway. Hikers pass six railroad tunnels and reach river beaches; much of the old line was built on wooden frameworks at the water's edge.
The Everett and Monte Cristo Railway was built through Robe Canyon in 1892 to carry gold and silver ore from Monte Cristo in the Cascade Mountains to Everett. The canyon section had six tunnels, and much of the route stood on wooden frameworks at the edge of the river, so floods repeatedly swept the structures away and forced constant repairs.
The trail follows the grade of the Everett and Monte Cristo Railway, built in 1892 to carry gold and silver ore from Monte Cristo to Everett. Volunteers have maintained the Old Robe Trail since Snohomish County acquired the first phase of the canyon in 1995, and in 2002 crews led by Volunteers for Outdoor Washington installed log railings and rerouted a section lost to the river.
The trailhead is on Forest Service Road 41 near the Mountain Loop Highway, about 6 miles east of Granite Falls. The route follows the Stillaguamish River through terrain that stays wet after rain, so wear sturdy footwear. Volunteers have relocated sections lost to the river's winter floods and installed log railings.
The original railway required constant repairs as floods from the Stillaguamish River repeatedly destroyed the wooden structures built along the water. These ongoing flood damages reveal the challenge of maintaining infrastructure in this wet and fast-flowing terrain.
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