We spent a very pleasant day showing our out of town family visiting the lovely Middle Fork area. We were three generations of hikers, with my 60+ Mom and partner who “don’t walk much,” us two, my 7 and 5-yo little ones hiking independently, and 1-yo being carried. We took them to Garfield Ledges first to get the climb out of the way, and everyone did great. The trail is a bit steep but equally doable for kids this age, and for those with creaky knees. My mom hoofed it up quite easily with the rest of us, and with lots of breaks to pick huckleberries (abundant right now!), we got to the top in 40 mins or so. The trail is in great shape. After a nice break to soak up the views, we took about 30-35 mins to head back down, then drove back down the road to the Oxbow Loop trailhead.
We parked at the bigger lot so we could take advantage of the full lollipop loop, and it worked out better to go counter-clockwise since we had lunch at the river and at that point we were only about 10-15 mins away from the car. We enjoyed an hour long leisurely lunch at the river. My kids enjoyed seeing all the tiny tadpoles along the trail. We also saw several garter snakes, and a big pile of berry-filled Bear scat but no Bear, (much to the relief of our older visitors). The bugs are pretty bad right now. The trail is in good shape, with the only real tricky part being the overgrown stinging nettles on many stretches of the trail that should be avoided.
These hikes are both delightful, easy, gorgeous and truly do offer something for everyone!
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