Best Seattle Suburb for Nature Trails/wilderness Areas

You will probably be happiest north/east of Seattle. Anything from Edmonds to Bellevue along the I-5 and I-405 corridor and maybe along I-90 (Issaquah). Personally I am in love with Woodinville - it's just so cute and walkable.
School districts in that region are pretty good too. Be warned though, the commute can be HELL!
We live in Seattle and love it. It less than a 20 minute drive to end up in the middle of nowhere and my commute is bearable.
Good luck and welcome!

I would say the Issaquah area, that is definately around a lot of hiking areas and as well, it is a very nice area with great schools. As well, Redmond for the same reasons. Pretty much most places outside of the Seattle area are in some way close to hiking trails. The most being towards the Cascade Mtns of course, that is why I say Issaquah. Go a little more east, like Snoqualmie, and you'll be in hiking heaven. It takes roughly 30 minutes to commute to Seattle from both Redmond and Issaquah and maybe 45 from Snoqualmie.

You will find that our area in general has a high population of mixed asian races and no matter where you go you'll find that you fit right in, in my opinion, even if you end up in a more hick-ish area. For instance my niece who's family is Caucasion/Thai, they live in Arlington which is out there and kind of farmland-ish and they have had no issues living there or anywhere else in the NW. Hope that helps :)

Redmond, wa sounds like a great place for you! Check it out!

Redmond would address your concerns for trails and feeling comfortable with the Asian-Caucasian mix. There's also Sammamish. Part of Sammamish and all of Redmond are in the Lake Washington school district, which is a good one.

If I were you my number one choice would be Redmond. It's farthest from downtown but still reachable (45 minutes at most with no traffic), but has the best parks, schools, and wooded areas. Parts of Bothell are great too, and the outskirts of Bellevue. Northshore and Bellevue school districts are top rated in our state. Welcome to Washington soon!

You might also want to take a look at north Edmonds/Mukilteo. There are quite a few greenbelts in the area and some large county parks which are mostly natural and undeveloped. Several parks with access to the beaches of Puget Sound are nearby as well. The Mukilteo School district is excellent if you stay toward the west side of the district that feeds into Kamiak High School.

It really depends on what you want. I live in Kenmore which is ideal because we don't have to use the 520 or the 90 to get across Lake Washington and so you miss all that traffic if you have to go into Seattle. We also live across from a beautiful State park called St. Edwards that has miles of hiking trails and some that are challenging. Kenmore is also in the "award winning" Northshore school district, so we're told. Not sure exactly what that means - my kids aren't yet school age and I'm Canadian so have no idea how the school system here works yet... Gotta figure that out soon!
You'll find that there is actually a lot of wilderness in the burbs here. Also, it doesn't matter too much where you choose as you are within a short drive from beautiful trails all over this area. North Bend is just 30 minutes away and has loads of trails for example. Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond are more upscale than our neighbourhood and there's not much to walk to for us other than a grocery store... But there's probably not much to walk to for a lot of people in the burbs. Also depends on where you or your husband will work as even the side streets can become quite clogged at rush hour, so you'll want to live fairly close to work. (My husband works in Redmond - 13 miles away - and it takes him 40 minutes to get home).

Issaquah. It has the wild you are looking for (it's a gateway town to the foothills and all the trails therein), but it's not hicksville at all, and it's nicely close to downtown Bellevue (10-15 minutes or so), which has urban sophistication. It's about 25-30 minutes to Seattle, maybe more with traffic.

For access to Seattle and good trails, most cities along the interstates 405, 90 or 520 are good options. They'll allow your husband to get to work easier than some of the other burbs, but still have nice trail systems or easy access. A couple options: Bellevue (particularly on the east or south sides), Issaquah, Renton (north or east), Redmond (awesome!! horrible traffic most of the time).

You can check the traffic mps to see how it flows on king5.com. It's the local news website and has real time traffic maps. If you also look at googlemaps, anywhere close to green almost certainly has trails. If you don't mind a little driving, then don't worry about it too much. Most places in the general Bellevue area are within 15-20 minutes of nice outdoor places.

Issaquah, close to the Cascades, cougar and bear sightings all the time. 1 hour to skiing and mountain pass. Very nice place to live

I like living in West Seattle (avoid White Center area here). Great schools, 10 min commute to down-town and from here we can go where ever we want for hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter. You will have no problem being mixed family almost anywhere in North West. You just need to weight what is more important for you: an easy everyday commute to work or an easy commute to hiking areas. We went for easy commute to work as you deal with that every day. Good luck!

The first area I thought of for you was North Bend area. Lot's of famous Cascade trails there. Also, pretty close to Snoqualmie skiing hills.
The other areas I thought I might suggest are Bainbridge Island and Vashon Island. There was just an article in the paper about a preschool over on Vashon that spent most if not all of their days outside in the forest. The commute is via ferry.
In Seattle,, Magnolia might be of interest as it has Discovery Park. They also have a preschool called Nature Kids.