Happy winter solstice! And happy year of monthly Oxbow Loop hikes to me! I’ve visited this trail every month in 2025, and it’s been rewarding to see how it changes with the seasons. It’s been such a meaningful experience for me during a difficult year. Also lucked out today and hiked during a break in the rain.

If you take the side trail to the river, you’ll see how high the recent floodwaters were. I hiked with my dad, who’s 5’6, and there were signs that the water would have been above his head during the recent storm. It was pretty wild to imagine. It also looks like the river reconnected with the lake during the flood; the lake is the highest I’ve seen it and colored with river silt.

SE Lake Dorothy Rd is still closed, so you have to take the Middle Fork road in. There’s one short section that is one-way due to, I’m assuming, slide danger. There are some branches from blowdowns jutting out into the road in a few places, so drive aware.

The trail is mostly clear, there are a few small blowdowns but they weren’t difficult to step over.

Short solstice walk in the wools. Saw one other party. Plenty of blowdowns from recent storms but not hard to get around….

I met up with a friend for a post-Thanksgiving hike on this trail since they had never been to the Middlefork area before. We hiked from the second lot, including the connector trail - the mountain/river views from that section were fogged in when we started but clear on the return trip. It was more crowded than I was expecting today, even for a holiday Friday (got the last spot in the larger parking lot at 10am), but the weather was gorgeous so I’m glad people were getting outside. Lots of families, dogs, and kids on the trail.

There were two trees down across the trail, one shin-high at the lowest end and the other about knee high. Both were fairly simple for mobile adults to step over but since this trail sees a variety of users I wanted to mention them. Other than that the trail was in great shape, and not much mud or any standing water even after all the recent rain.

Restrooms were open and stocked, and trash was being picked up as we were leaving. The door for the toilet on the right side does not lock but the lock on the other one was functional.

This morning I did a quick stop at the Oxbow Loop Trail as a warmup for Otter/Big Creek Falls and Garfield Ledges. Nobody was in the parking lot or on the trail at 7:45, and I traveled at 3.5 mph along a raised gravel path in great condition, taking in the birds (golden-crowned kinglets, a thrush, a downy woodpecker, stellers jay, raven, towhee, Pacific wren, and a few frogs) as I went. 

No trees or branches blocked the path, and without a drop of rain all day I was able to shoot a few photos of the lake from the bridge before heading back to my car. I covered .93 miles in 17 minutes as a great warm-up for the rest of our hiking.

 I hiked the loop for the first time after I had had a very enjoyable time on Garfield ledges. After many times hiking and kayaking along the middle Fork, I never really knew about this loop hike. This is a very easy hike, which took less than an hour. The Oxbow Loop pond had several ducks and other water birds.