This is to give you the information I wish that I had before doing this hike.

As another reviewer stated, the gravel service road drops to a wide trail with tall brush on either side. It makes a right turn into tall grass but this wasn't really obvious. The area widens into a clearing with big metal booms or tubes, and it can be a little tricky finding the trail after the clearing.

When you find the trail again, it follows the river along a high bank with occasional openings. There are a few places where you can drop down to the sand bar and rocks by the riverside to have lunch or enjoy the scenery. Then the trail mainly continues through forest and blackberry bushes with not much to see.

Things get confusing at Scatter Creek. The rocks have yellow spray paint to show you where to cross. Then the rocks have RED spray paint and there is a hiking sign. This takes you to the trail that continues on to the old fish release site. This is shown on the Mud Mountain map at the trailhead.

HOWEVER, both the WTA Trail Blazer app, and also Gaia GPS, show the trail curving north toward the highway. THIS IS NOT THE RIVER TRAIL. It is barely a trail at all except a social trail that goes up an extremely steep bank. It is a strenuous climb and there are ropes in places. At the top it is a thick jungle that goes to Highway 410. It's a total waste of time.

Back to Scatter Creek. The River Trail, marked with red spray paint, is densely overgrown. The sign at the trailhead says it takes stamina and determination. At this point I turned back. Maybe I'll give that a go again next year.

This was a pleasant forest hike which opened onto the river's flood plain. However, there are super limited views of the river itself. It's not like the photo at the top of this hike page which says, "Hike through the trees and along White River". When you're down by the river there is a wide, thick, and tall barrier of brush along the river itself, blocking all views and access to the river. See the attached photo for what it's like.

I figured I'd continue along the river trail to Scatter Creek to at least see some water, but the river trail ended about 1/2 mile before the creek, and you'd have to bushwhack through to get to it, which I didn't want to do.

Basically, a peaceful, uncrowded forest hike, but don't go expecting to see or get near the river itself. Even the views of the river from up on the Rim Trail portion were really limited.

Muddy in spots, couple trees down across trail but overall was great hike!! Main road coming back up sucks so plan to take lots of breaks.

Trip Report for Mud Mountain River Trail and Rim Trail Sunday December 17, 2023.  

Off of Mud Mtn SE Road, we parked at the first turnout/gate.  Only one other car at 10:30am and probably only room for 2 more. (No parking passes needed). This trailhead starts you off less than a 1/4 mile to the intersection of River Trail and Rim Trail.  

We first took the River Trail to the left, and it starts by descending down an old gravel road.  It opens out into a vast area over the White River.  We could even see some of the mountains in the distance since the weather was mostly clear and the sun started to come out. We ended up going through the open mud area only to discover we had walked right past the connecting trail that runs parallel with the River.  AllTrails app got us back on track.  We turned around prior to the Scatter Creek mentioned in the WTA description and returned back the same way. There was only one muddy spot on this section - otherwise, just leaves and lots of scat along the way.   It is a bit of a thigh burner the last 1/2 mile up.  Once back up the the intersection sign, we had a round trip of about 4 miles.  

So from here we then went onto the Rim Trail.  This section was different terrain, soft pine needles, compact earth and roots.  There is a nice picnic bench about a 1/2 mile in overlooking the ridge and we could see and hear a long waterfall across the river. Perfect spot for lunch!

This trail meanders through the forest with a little bit of elevation gain.  At the (functioning and clean) restroom, we took the loop trail and then returned back on the Rim Trail with the high bluffs.  

By the time we got back to the car, had clocked 7 miles. We only saw 5 people the entire day.  This trail seems underused and yet in decent shape.  It was a nice winter hike for a mild weather day.  

A beautiful day for a river ramble at Mud Mountain. It has been years since we visited and this trail was even better than I remembered. We parked before the last gate (which is closed due to the weekend. We saw one vehicle leaving and were the only car in the lot at 9ish on a Sunday. We set out on the rim trail, which follows the bluff along the river - it was breezy and chilly so bring your layers. There are peekaboo views of the river and beautiful large cedars along the trail. We then met the river trail and took it down to the river-it’s a bit muddy in sections but nothing too bad. We saw coyote and elk scat on this trail. We enjoyed a river view and turned back. We took the bog loop on the way back, which was interesting. We saw just two parties and one dog on the way back. This was an enjoyable late fall walk with lots of solitude.