Simple hike with beautiful mountain scenery! Well maintained path with gravel. There were quite a few wildflowers along the trail. There’s a little paved area for parking along the road at the trailhead.

Side note: some snakes along trail

After a somewhat disappointing foray for wildflowers east of the mountains yesterday, I went up the Middle Fork to see what I could find. Decided to tick this trail off my list since I'd driven by it so many times, and it was a surprisingly interesting trail. It's well-constructed and well-maintained, and level and smooth but with definitely a bit of up-and-down. Honestly it feels like one of the Issaquah Alps trails but far less crowded. I saw maybe 8 parties the whole day (including a game little Shih Tzu and his lovely person, who I ran into three times). I've often wondered if this trail was a good recommendation for kids and pets, and now I know. The primary parking lot with the restrooms has a short access trail to the top of the trail loop, and it goes over a bluff with great river/mountain views.

The most prevalent flora and fauna were horsetails coming up and garter snakes. We stopped counting after about ten snakes. Most were on the sunny northwest side of the trail. There were spent trilliums, some going purple and lots of bleeding hearts.

It was a good time to do the hike as the deciduous trees are not filled out yet so there are good views of the mountains. The trail has been well maintained and in good condition. The restrooms at the eastern trailhead are open and clean.

I went hiking and fishing to Oxbow lake for the first time this year. The road and trail are in good shape. Several trees had apparently fallen on the trail but have been sawed up and pushed aside. I saw several flowers blooming and some big frogs in the pond, but the fish are MIA. Decent weather but it started pouring as I headed back and then the exit for highway 18 was closed so that wasn't fun but it was good to get a hike in. There were only a few open spots in the lot when I got there around noon.