Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park is less than 20 minutes outside of Seattle, making it an accessible spot to get out and hike from the city. Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park is part of an area known as the Issaquah Alps. The park has a history of mining, with coal first being found near Cougar Mountain back in 1863. Decades of different resources were harvested from Cougar Mountain before it became protected land in the late 1980s. The Issaquah Alps Trails Club not only advocates and educates for the parks, but has its own wildlife education project.