Garfield Ledges is such a nice quick romp - just outside of North Bend. Not crowded midweek on a cloudy Spring afternoon. We got lucky and had the viewpoint to ourselves.

The paved Middle Fork road is in perfect condition. It is best to park in the big paved Middle Fork Trailhead parking lot and walk the half mile Middle Fork Connector Trail across the Taylor River bridge to the Garfield Ledges trailhead ... the pavement ends at the Middle Fork TH and the dirt road beyond is truly abysmal - with huge potholes. (Friends tell me that they regularly see car parts strewn across the bridge for those that attempt to drive that last portion!)

The WTA-engineered trail is in perfect condition. Yay WTA!

The surrounding peaks are still snow covered - very pretty! 

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The paved road lasts right up until the bridge just past the large parking area. I saw a Prius on the other side, but I bet he was sweating bullets with some of those potholes. Even if you needed to park before the bridge, it’s not far to walk over to the trailhead. My Forester had no problems. 

The trail is in great condition and it’s an easy climb up the ledges. It was nice to chill for a while at the top and enjoy the view. 

The road to the trailhead is really pretty with lots of turnoffs for other small hikes or picnic spots. Once you reach the trailhead the road immediately deteriorates, very potholy. The trail itself is short and fairly steep but it is really gorgeous. Very well maintained until a few hundred feet from the top where it gets rockier and less smooth.

I was completely alone on the trail and enjoyed the summit view by myself, wouldn’t be a lot of room if there were more than a few groups there. Beautiful vista of the valley and surrounding mountains, I could actually hear frogs croaking.

You can hike to the top, have a snack and take some pics and get back to your car in an hour. It’s a really beautiful hike with amazing viewpoint at the top.

Loved this short trail with big views. Road is paved all the way to a bridge which is damaged with potholes but crossable in SUV or sedan if you go slow enough. Potholed parking lot but trail is right at parking lot. Was up to viewpoint in 45 minutes. This would be delightful sunrise on a clear day.

Snow packed intermittently to consistent at the top. No traction needed - boots are fine. Will be muddy here soon enough. Kid / pets / tourist friendly.

Today we tried hiking out on the Snoqualmie Middle Fork road and had two great early spring hikes.  The road is clear of all debris and has been repaved over the crushed gravel area before the 2 dips.  Our first destination was Garfield Ledges, the road seriously deteriorates after the Middle Fork parking lot. The road is extremely potholed on both sides of the Taylor River bridge and could eat sedan type cars. The vault toilets are open and stocked with supplies. It was 47 degrees with mostly sunny skies when we started out just after 10:00AM. Trip reports from last weekend indicated snow on Garfield Ledges but it has completely melted out.  The trail was in great condition and we had it all to ourselves.  Once at the ledges we took a few photo ops to capture the great the view under partially cloudy skies.  We passed our first hikers of the day when we were almost back to our vehicles.  Our next stop was the Oxbow Loop trail.  Many more folks were out enjoying this loop dappled in sun and green sprouting up everywhere.  A few merganser ducks were hanging out in Oxbow pond and we heard several woodpeckers knocking in the area.  To add more mileage we crossed the road and walked up the Bessmer road past the blue gate.  We turned back just before the logging  staging area  where the road intersects with the CCC trail and ended up with a 6 mile day.  Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.