We're Launching a Trailhead Survey at Snoqualmie Pass! Here's How to Take It

Cascade Backcountry Alliance is collecting data at Snoqualmie Pass trailheads to document your experience accessing the backcountry. The insights we gain from this survey will help us improve parking, expand trailhead access, increase safety, and reduce environmental impact at one of our favorite winter zones.

Read on to learn more about the survey and how you can participate!

Cascade Backcountry Alliance is placing posters like these at Snoqualmie Pass trailheads. Keep an eye out and take the survey when you see one!

Why We’re Conducting a Survey

Our survey effort is designed to capture credible, firsthand accounts from real winter backcountry users like you. We want to build a clear, user-reported picture of access conditions at popular trailheads. The data we collect will help strengthen our case for creating a Sno-Park at the Pacific Crest Trail North trailhead and inform future advocacy efforts for other Snoqualmie area access initiatives . 

Specifically, the survey asks questions to help us investigate these issues:

• High Demand Exceeding Current Access Infrastructure: Quantifying unmet demand to support new Sno-Park designations or expanded parking.

• Unsafe Roadside Parking: Gathering user-reported evidence of unsafe conditions to justify infrastructure or safety improvements.

• Snoqualmie Pass as a Regional Asset: Demonstrating the region's statewide significance to strengthen the case for state investment and multi-agency coordination.

• Barriers to Equitable Access: Framing infrastructure and cost as equity issues to support inclusive and affordable recreation.

• Inadequate Transportation Systems: Linking recreation congestion to transportation planning to provide evidence of the need for sustainable public transit to Snoqualmie Pass.

• Under-Resourced Management: Highlighting how insufficient management capacity (e.g. a lack of maintenance and signage) undermines safety and the user experience.

How You Can Participate

We’re using a simple text message survey that makes it easy to share your experience when you visit a winter trailhead at Snoqualmie Pass. You can complete the survey right at the trailhead at the start or end of your day, or after returning home.

There are three ways you can participate:

1. Look for our signs at key trailheads

We’ll have signs at the Alpental-A4 parking lot and the Commonwealth Basin/PCT North trailhead. Text the phone number or scan the QR code to start the survey!

2. Say hi to our trailhead ambassadors

We’ve partnered with Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust to have trailhead ambassadors at Gold Creek Sno-Park, Crystal Springs Sno-Park and Cabin Creek Sno-Park. They’ll have postcards with a QR code to our survey. Take the survey yourself, then share it with friends!

3. Scan this QR code

Forgot to take the survey while you were out? No problem—just text “CBA” to (206) 483-0681 or scan this QR code!

Don’t forget to share the survey with your friends! The more people who participate, the more we can learn about winter recreation needs at Snoqualmie Pass and the stronger our case is when we talk with land managers and partners. Please spread the word on social media, pass around the survey postcards, and tell your backcountry partners to take the survey so we can get as many responses as possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I take the survey will I be added to some Cascade Backcountry Alliance text message list?

Absolutely not! We’re not storing any phone numbers from this survey. You won’t be added to any list (although we’d love it if you sign up for our email newsletter separately!).

Can I take the survey multiple times? 

Yes! In fact, we’d love it if you did, as things can change dramatically day to day. You can either re-submit using the original “start word” (e.g. “ALPY” for Alpental) or text “CBA” to (206) 483-0681 and we’ll ask you where you began your day’s adventure. 

Why conduct this survey now when it’s been a low snow year?

We understand that this year’s snowpack is creating different dynamics at the pass than in previous years but it is helpful for us to have this baseline of information for what a “low snow” year looks like. The more data and documentation we have around parking and access at the pass, the better we can advocate for Sno-Park development, improved signage, better transportation systems, and more equitable access. 

Didn’t the Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC) already do some outreach like this?

In 2023, NWAC performed trailhead outreach at 15 locations across Washington State (Olympics to North Cascades to White River) to obtain zone-level estimates of backcountry visitation rates and user demographics. The focus of the NWAC study was both to make a “point-in-time” estimate of backcountry visitation volume and to validate the technique of using trailhead sampling to estimate these data.

Our study focuses less on the volume of visitation and more on the visitor experience: we want to understand what people are experiencing when they travel to Snoqualmie Pass to recreate, not just how many folks are doing so. Additionally, changes to access at Snoqualmie Pass, including the Summit at Snoqualmie’s parking fee system,  may have changed visitation significantly since NWAC’s 2023 study. We see our study as complimentary to NWAC’s existing work, and are looking to supplement it by better understanding the I-90 access landscape to support our advocacy efforts. 

If you are affiliated with an organization that works at Snoqualmie Pass and have visitor use data from the last few years that you are able to share with our organization, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@cascadebackcountryalliance.com