My wife and I wanted to see the Snow Geese at the Skagit valley and we combined the trip with this excellent nearby hike.  Little Mountain is located just south of Mount Vernon and only 1 mile east of I-5.  I've driven by it a million times but was unaware that it was public land and has nice trails.

There are at least 5 different potential trailheads.  We decided to start at the lesser known Darvil Trialhead off of E Hickox Rd because this gives access to hiker only trails.  Other trailheads are multiuse and appear to get a fair amount of Mountain Bike use. There are only spots for 3 or 4 cars at this trailhead.  

I was very surprised to find that most of the forest on the south side of Little Mountain is virgin forest. The trees aren't huge but there are sections with dozens of handsome 4-5+ foot Doug Fir and outside the 1st 1/4 mile there are no stumps.  This is a rare find in the lowlands of Puget Sound.

At the top there is a parking area and 2 viewpoints. One to the south which takes in the Skagit Valley, Mt Rainier and the Olympics. The north viewpoint looks over Mount Vernon and there's a nice view of Mt Baker.

RT 3.4 miles and 945 feet elevation

We headed to this nearby trail system in the evening to scout out a location for a new geocache. My mission was to reach the old car that on the south side of the mountain at an unknown elevation. We were not sure which trail it was on, so we decided to wing it. After parking at the yellow gate, we walked up the road to the hair pin turn where we had a choice. We took the more northern trail, Bonnie & Clyde, and ended up backtracking to Julianne trail. After reaching the old car, we headed back to the trailhead.

During our hike we encountered a good number of mountain bikers, head lamps ablaze. Julianne, Bonnie & Clyde and Ridge trails are in good condition. There were a couple small branches across the trails, nothing too big. There are some areas that look like trails, but are just social trails that lead to small drop offs. There are some impressive old growth stumps here, too.

These are good trails for kids, dogs, mountain bikes and hikers. Heed the signs which dictate the appropriate users. There is about 10 miles of trails here at Little Mountain. Be sure to snap a photo of the map at the trailhead. Save yourself some confusion. Have fun!

This trail was hiked by Mrs. A's 4/5 grade class. We parked at the lowest parking lot and started on the Rooty trail, which we followed to the Huff n Puff trail. There are quite a few different trails in the area- the names are marked, but definitely bring a map. Upon reaching the end of the Huff n Puff, we turned right onto the old Service Road trail and then hooked onto the Sidewinder and followed that the rest of the way up. There are many switchbacks on the Sidewinder trail, but many of them felt very pointless, it wasn't steep at all for us. We turned left at the top of the Sidewinder trail to check out the North Viewpoint, which was amazing, and then headed the rest of the way up the hill to see the other viewpoint and stop to have lunch. Once we were done, we headed back down the Sidewinder trail and hooked a left onto the Bonnie and Clyde trail, which was a bit narrower. We got to see the old rusted car on the side of the trail which was really great. Once we hit the end of that trail we had another snack break and then headed back to the cars by going around the corner and connecting back to the Rooty trail. For the most part, the trail was well maintained, with some sections that were a bit rocky, rooty, or slippery. Overall, with 1 being the least and 5 being the most, the kids rated the difficulty a 3 and the likability a 4. Our total mileage was around 4.0, and we thought that it would be hikable in all kinds of weather.

My fun hiking friend and I decided to take a little trip from Seattle to do this hike. I just recently discovered it through a WTA trip report. We parked at the first trailhead you see going up the road. We took the Rooty Trail to Huff-n-Puff, then Sidewinder to the first viewpoint, then on to the second one. There are two viewpoints with different views of Skagit Valley and the islands. We descended via Ginny's Trail, Sidewinder, Bonnie & Clyde's Trail and back to the car via Rooty. This hike wasn't crowded, and the trails were good. There's a rusty old car on the Bonnie & Clyde Trail that we didn't even know about! Make sure you take a screenshot of a map before you start. The trails are pretty well marked, except we got a little confused when we first descended. My hiking partner fortunately had a GPS unit so we didn't end up wandering aimlessly! There are many trails, and some were steeper than others. We did 4.2 miles with 470 feet elevation gain. Next time I'm going to do the Up Only Trail!

Entrance to the park is off of Little Mountain Rd. Very little parking on the lower end except along the side of the road. There were nine people in our party and we did a loop to the top beginning at the LaZ-Boy Trail and ending on the Ginny's Trail at the top. This is a lovely forested area which made it hard to believe we were so close to town. The trail was in fair condition and in places quite steep. The rain went from mist, to rain to hail and finally as we reached the top, it stopped! We didn't have much of a view due to the clouds and fog while we were there. However, after we ate lunch we walked out on the overlook bridge because now the fog was lifting and wow what a great view of the Skagit Valley, the sound and Mt. Vernon (the mountain). We went back to our starting point by walking on the road to the park entrance. At the top we found picnic benches, a parking lot, a lovely covered overlook and a privy. There are multiple trails on this mountain and we ended up taking seven of them as we did a loop around the outside of the mountain. http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/@@tripreport-add?tinymce.suppress=form.widgets.tripDescription&park.