Because the View From Poo Poo Point Never Gets Old

📷 PHOTO PLACEHOLDER: A paraglider launching from Poo Poo Point, and the summit view toward Mt. Rainier and Lake Sammamish.

Ask a longtime Issaquah resident what makes this city different from anywhere else on the Eastside, and there's a decent chance the answer involves a hillside covered in colorful nylon wings. Welcome to Poo Poo Point, the summit on West Tiger Mountain where hikers earn a jaw-dropping view of Mount Rainier and Lake Sammamish, and where, on a clear day, you'll watch paragliders run straight off the grassy knoll and disappear into the sky.

A Trailhead That's Basically a Neighborhood Amenity

Most cities point to a park. Issaquah points to a mountain. The Chirico Trail climbs about 1,700 feet over roughly 3.8 miles round trip, steep enough to feel like an accomplishment, short enough to knock out before lunch. The longer, gentler route starts right from Issaquah High School, which tells you everything about how woven into daily life this trail really is. Kids grow up here treating a 4-mile mountain hike the way other towns treat a walk around the block.

The name itself is local lore: it's said to come from the steam whistle sound of old logging equipment that once worked this hillside, not the joke every second-grader assumes. Around the 1970s the timber company cleared the summit so thoroughly that the open, grassy launch point was born, and pilots noticed. Tiger Mountain has since become one of the best-known paragliding and hang-gliding sites in the country, with a local outfitter running tandem flights right from the base.

You Don't Have to Fly to Love It Up There

Here's the part that surprises newcomers: most of the people at the top on any given weekend aren't gliding at all. They're hikers who came specifically to watch. Poo Poo Point has two separate viewpoints, the South Launch and the North Launch, both of which double as some of the best spectator seating in the state. Families spread out a picnic on the grassy knoll, dogs nap in the sun, and everyone watches for that moment when a pilot takes a few running steps and simply lifts off the hillside. It's become its own kind of local ritual: a genuinely free, genuinely spectacular way to spend a Saturday morning, whether or not you have any interest in leaving the ground yourself.

The Company Behind the Wings: Seattle Paragliding

If watching from the grass turns into wanting to try it yourself, the outfitter most pilots and first-timers know by name is Seattle Paragliding, based right at the foot of Tiger Mountain on Issaquah-Hobart Road, next to the landing zone. They offer tandem flights with a certified instructor pilot doing all the technical work. No experience, and essentially no age limit, required; they've flown passengers from age 5 to well into their 90s. You either ride their shuttle up to the launch or hike up yourself and pay a smaller fee to have your gear shuttled, then run a few steps downhill with your instructor and the wing does the rest. Beyond one-time tandem flights, they also run a full paragliding school for people who want to get certified and fly solo, complete with a private training hill, plus tandem "party" packages for groups. For a lot of visitors, watching from Poo Poo Point on one trip and booking a flight on the next is basically the Issaquah bucket-list arc.

What It's Really Selling: Proximity to the Extraordinary

Here's the thing buyers relocating from denser markets don't always expect: this isn't a drive-an-hour-to-the-trailhead kind of outdoor access. Poo Poo Point, and the rest of the Issaquah Alps, sit inside the city limits or a few minutes past them. You can have a normal Tuesday and be standing on a ridgeline watching someone launch off a mountain by 6 p.m.

For buyers weighing Issaquah against other Eastside cities, this is often the tiebreaker. It's not just that there's a trail nearby. It's that the trail is dramatic, the payoff is real, and it's part of the identity of the place rather than an afterthought.

For Buyers & Sellers

Homes within easy reach of the Poo Poo Point / Tiger Mountain trailheads, particularly in the Issaquah Highlands and neighborhoods off Newport Way and SE Issaquah-Fall City Road, consistently draw buyers who list "outdoor access" as a top priority. If you're selling in one of these pockets, it's worth calling out trail proximity explicitly in your listing; it's a detail relocating buyers search for by name.

Thinking about a move to a neighborhood where a mountain view, or a mountain launch pad, is part of daily life? We'd love to show you around. Reach out to Kelly Azzarello Real Estate to talk about which Issaquah neighborhoods put you closest to the trails that matter most to you.