Bainbridge Island loves its trails. Year by year, mile by mile, public trails have become one of our most popular features and most valuable community assets.
The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is the acknowledged community leader in the expansion of our public trails.
From our behind-the-scenes work acquiring new trails easements, to coordinating the efforts of local agencies and advocates, the Foundation is a dynamic and effective force in planning, funding, building and maintaining trails island-wide. We are the nexus from which island trails multiply, grow and thrive.
48 miles of trails, and growing
There are over 48 miles of public trails on Bainbridge Island. We’ve added 10 miles of trails over the past few years – Blakely Hills, Hawley Cove, Gazzam Lake, Old Mill, Sakai Park, the Farmland Trails and more – working in partnership with the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Trails District, the City of Bainbridge Island, private landowners and generous donors.
Every new trail is an essential part of this growing network, whether a recreational trail serving park goers, a short connector between neighborhoods, or a strategic corridor to schools or commercial centers.
Backed by volunteer commitment
Our 12-member Trails Committee contributes thousands of volunteer hours each year in trails research, appraisals and legal work. We engage private landowners, HOAs, churches, schools and organizations on potential trail routes.
Providing funds to build and maintain
Our work doesn’t stop at trail acquisition. We directly fund trail permitting and construction. We also provide critical funding to Bainbridge Metro Parks for trail-building equipment, and maintenance programs like the Summer Trails Crew.
Planning trails islandwide (and beyond)
Our impact extends regionwide. We lead the Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative (PS2P), and recently secured a $16M grant for major trail planning from Winslow to the Pacific Ocean. $1.7 million comes to Bainbridge Island to design the Sound to Olympics Trail, from Sakai Park north to the Agate Pass Bridge.
Help build trails with gift today
The Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation is pleased to share with you our next four trail projects. Find out how you can help build these trails (and many more) with a gift today – contact Mary Meier, mary@biparksfoundation.org or 206.842.4971
Join us as we build four key trails … and more
Together, our next four signature trails – the Lost Valley Trail, Nutes Pond to Sunny Hill Trail, Dolphin Drive to West Port Madison Trail, and Waypoint Woods Gateway Trail – will serve our neighbors across Bainbridge Island. Your gift to the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation will make a tremendous impact, and inspire so many others to give.
Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District
Help build four new signature trails
Lost Valley Trail
Crossing Bainbridge Island from east to west, linking Winslow to Gazzam Lake
Soon to be a jewel of the Bainbridge Island trail system, Lost Valley is the hub of an east-west, cross-island trail from Winslow all the way to Gazzam Lake and Crystal Springs.
The trail crosses a 33-acre City-owned parcel bounded by Wyatt Way/Head of the Bay (east) and Fletcher Bay Road (west), with connections to several neighborhoods along the way.
Funding will cover trail construction by the Park District, and City permitting costs for a boardwalk across a wetland area.
Length: 1 mile
Projected cost: $169,560
Partners: City of Bainbridge Island, Bainbridge Metro Parks
Dolphin Drive to W. Port Madison
Connecting north-end neighborhoods underserved by trails
This wooded, recreational trail will connect two “landlocked” north-end neighborhoods, an area long underserved by trails.
Funding covers all facets of trail development – permitting, construction and fencing – for a new trail connecting the Agate Pass Loop neighborhood (at Dolphin Drive) with West Port Madison Road.
The trail has been planned in partnership with Bloedel Reserve, which provided an easement along its west boundary.
Length: 0.5 mile
Projected cost: $156,600
Partners: Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Metro Parks
Sunny Hill to Nutes Pond
A new path to one of the island’s quietest, most picturesque parks
South Bainbridge Island enjoys a lengthy recreational trail system and some of our most picturesque parks.
This recreational trail will link scenic but isolated Nutes Pond, via the new Sunny Hill Trail, with parks and neighborhoods – Blakely Harbor, Fort Ward, and to the extensive south-end trail system beyond.
Trail easements have already been secured from landowners, and this trail is ready to permit and build, including boardwalks.
Length: 0.35 mile
Projected cost: $151,200
Partner: Bainbridge Metro Parks
Waypoint Woods Gateway Trail
Welcoming visitors from the ferry to the island’s trail network
Waypoint Woods is a developing gateway park to the Bainbridge Island trail system. Visitors leaving the ferry will enjoy a landscaped rock plaza, wooded loop trails, Eagle Harbor views and a quiet setting.
A key feature is a planned pedestrian stairway, leading up a shallow slope into the park from the Charles Schmid Waterfront Trail. The stairway is being designed in the style of ferryboat ladders, evoking the park’s heritage maritime-industrial setting next to the Washington State Ferries maintenance yard.
Length: 0.1 mile, connecting to wooded loop trails
Projected cost: $112,320
Partner: Bainbridge Metro Parks
Two more visionary trails
Grand Forest to Meigs Park
A new path to one of the island’s quietest, most picturesque parks
This long-sought trail would link the Grand Forest East to Meigs Parks through the Bainbridge Island Land Trust’s Wildlife Corridor. The Parks & Trails Foundation is discussing a key trail easement from the owners of an adjacent farm. With funding, the Foundation can hire a private builder to complete the trail and fencing. Funding could also support construction crews for a new trail loop within Grand Forest East, linking up with a new trail at the north end of Meigs Park.
The project could be further leveraged into improvements to the Wardwell Road ROW, to connect adjacent neighborhoods to Meigs Park and the Wildlife Corridor.
Length: 1.2 miles, plus additional loop trail mileage
Partners: Bainbridge Metro Parks, City of Bainbridge Island
Manzanita Park to Lynwood Center
Welcoming visitors from the ferry to the island’s trail network
This trail prospect has captured the imagination of Bainbridge Island hikers and runners for over
a decade. The linear north-south trail route would connect some of the island’s major parks and natural areas including Manzanita Park, the Grand Forest, Strawberry Hill Park, Johnson Farm, Gazzam Lake Preserve and Schel Chelb Park, linked by trails and quiet road segments.
The trail route would parallel the planned Sound to Olympics Trail (a greenway along SR305, from Winslow to the Agate Pass Bridge), creating dual north-south trails and enhancing recreation and transportation opportunities with connectors to many neighborhoods.
Length: 8 miles
Partners: Bainbridge Metro Parks, City of Bainbridge Island