Full disclosure from the get-go, I only hiked about the first mile, I was working with a trail crew party up there. From what I saw the trail was in good condition. We cut a large rotten log off the side of the trail, and I know that at least 4-5 other logs were cut off the trail further up. 

A big note for this trail is that it says the river crossing does not have a bridge. This is false. There is a bridge, to be fair it seems they have to rebuild it each year, as last years bridge was different than this years. This trail is a great alternative to get up to Mazama Park and Park Butte that will be nice and quiet. The trail starts off pretty steep so get those calves warmed up.

I do hope this trail description gets more robust once the reboot is complete! There isn't much information. 

Also I'm doing Hike-A-Thon this year so help give back to the trails by sponsoring me! 

https://give.wta.org/KarenBean

Perfect conditions for experiencing this hike for the first time.  We saw 2 other hikers all day,  sunshine and a cool breeze! Lots of wildflowers blooming the whole way up.  A few trees down over the trail,  but easy to get around.  The heather meadows at the top were flooded with all of the snow melt,  but it was easy to get around...and warm enough that wet feet were ok with us.  Creeks were all pretty high,  so you need to be comfortable rock hopping across. 

Video attached, including the road up.

I had been unaware of Ridley Creek Trail until a little over a month ago. When I heard of it, it piqued my curiosity. 

FR 38 is not marked off Mosquito Lake Road. Waze called it "Anacortes Veneer Logging Road". The first 7 or so miles of road is smooth and virtually pothole free. As you get closer, potholes abound and the road narrows to single lane. Pretty much any vehicle can make it to the Trailhead. 

There is a fire pit and a neat little camp site at the trailhead, if dispersed camping appeals to you. The parking area can probably hold about 10 vehicles. I was the only one there upon arrival. One other hiker passed by me as I was heading back to my truck.

The first 2 miles of trail are through forest, which was much appreciated on a hot day - it was all in the shade. There are various fungi growing along the trail most of the first 2 miles. There are several fallen trees on the trail. Most can be navigated around or over, but on required climbing over. 

About 3/4 of a mile from Mazama Camp snow appears. It is melting rapidly, so there are little snow bridges to navigate, and the remainder of the trail is very wet, slushy, and I postholed several times up to my knee. Doing so resulted in submerging my boots fully into the water flowing underneath, so the remainder of the hike was spent with wet feet. 

The trail, even along the sections of snow, was easy to follow. I had originally thought about making the additional 1.25 mile trip up to Park Butte, but with the slushy snow and soaking wet feet, I chose to eat lunch at the Mazama Shelter and then head back down.

Neat little trail that connects to so many other awesome trails at the meadow. I will do it again in another month or so when it has fully melted out. 

We hiked the Ridley Creek trail to Park Butte on Saturday. The road is in good condition and snow-free all the way to the the trail head.

To access the trail head take Mosquito Lake Road from either SR542 or SR9 and turn onto FS Road 38 (Middle Fork Rd. on Google Maps) . The turn off for FS Road 38 is unsigned. If you’re coming from SR9 the turn off is on your right just shortly after you cross the Nooksack River bridge on Mosquito Lake Rd. If you’re coming from SR542 the turn is on your left, and if you cross that same bridge you know you drove past the turn off.

You follow FS Road 38 all the way to the end, and that’s where you’ll find the trail head. The first several miles of the road have just been re graded and the road is in excellent condition, after that there’s a few pot holes here and there but it’s no big deal. Any car should be fine as long as you take it easy.

There used to be a dicey river crossing right at the beginning of the trail, but now there’s a nice log bridge with a hand rope there to get you across.

The trail is mostly snow free about half way to Mazama Park, after that route finding skills are required to navigate the rest of the way because the trail is buried under the snow where you can’t see it. Occasionally they’ve got an orange ribbon tied to a tree to let you know you’re on the right track.

Once we got to Mazama Park, we headed up Bell Pass in front of Cathedral Crag to join the route taken by the Summer trail the rest of the way to Park Butte. Alternatively, you can take a more mellow (but longer) route around the back side of Cathederal Crag via Baker Pass if conditions on Bell Pass aren’t to your liking.

I chatted with some snowmobilers up at the look out and they told me that the road to Scribers Meadow and the official Park Butte Trailhead is still snowed in about 2 miles before you get to the trail head. They said there was about two or three feet of snow still at the summer trail head.

We spent about an hour at the top, and then gilssaded down Bell Pass and hiked back to the car.

We used snowshoes, ice axe, trekking poles, and micro spikes. Round trip, the hike was about 9 miles with approx. 3,400 feet of elevation gain.

Please note: if you click on "View on Map" on the WTA app for Ridley Creek, it will bring you to the Park Butte trailhead. Make sure to follow the actual directions and not the map. 

The road to the trailhead is snow free all of the way to the trailhead. It is a logging road though, and has a good bit of thick mud in sections and big potholes. It's passable for all cars in my opinion. 

Within a quarter of a mile on the trail, you will reach the creek crossing. I'm not sure is the second half of the bridge washed out, or if it was never there, but it is somewhat challenging when crossing with pups. The rock that the bridge is perched on was iced over this morning, making it even more tricky. The trail is pretty easy going. It had one large tree down and one small tree down, but both were easy to go over/around. We hit snow about 2.25 miles in (roughly 4,100ft) but it was only a couple of inches deep and didn't require any traction. We contemplated putting on snowshoes and heading up to Park Butte, but our pups were having a blast playing in the meadow, so we just hung out and had a snow day. The hike was 6.5 miles roundtrip with about 2,000ft of gain.