After camping nearby the night before, my friend and I decided to hike Green Gulch before returning to Spokane. The previous night's rain in the valley bottoms left the high country lightly blanketed in snow, which was gorgeous. We started with a loose plan to hike up Green Gulch, then find a likely spot to ascend a nearby ridge, and possibly even make it as far as Mt. Wilson before returning to the car & heading home.

The Green Gulch portion of the hike is easy. We opted for the parking area across the road from the old schoolhouse parking area (there is ample parking for this trailhead, along with an outhouse at the parking area we used). The trail is actually an old farm road that ascends Green Gulch and crosses a small creek several times. The blackberry brambles threaten to take over the trail on the lower section, and there were some healthy stands of poison ivy up higher. Eventually the trail ascends to open grasslands where it borders adjacent private property & an active grazing allotment. 

At that point we decided to ascend the ridge. We continued up on WDFW property to an adjacent parcel of DNR land, which brought us higher up the ridge until we reached some BLM land for the summit of Mt. Wilson. Mt. Wilson tops out at just shy of 5000' elevation, but when you consider that the parking area for Green Gulch is below 1000' elevation, it makes for a difficult scramble and I don't think Mt. Wilson receives many visitors each year! The view from the top looking toward the Snake River is fantastic and makes it well worth the effort, even if my knees are pretty cranky from the descent. Rather than retrace our route up, we opted to descend via a parallel ridge and stayed completely off-trail almost the entire way back to the parking lot. 

We never did see the elk herd, but we did see elk sign. We also spotted some mule deer and quite a few chukars. I was also shocked to see some lomatium in bloom as we descended the ridge!

The weather dictated my doing this trail today. Overcast sky was predicted and that was true 90% of the hike. There was a pretty steady rain on the last mile back, right after the sun disappeared. I saw one person going up as I was heading down. Did 3.1 miles in before turning around, so 6.2 miles total. I was going to go a little further in, but I could see the clouds building. First time hiking this trail and everything was fresh and green. Saw a number of turkeys near the 3-mile mark gobbling and strutting and completely oblivious to my presence. Those were the only animals I saw except for a vole that crossed my path on the way out. There were not many flowers blooming, some legumes and ninebark, but pretty sparse in the wildflower department. A few bugs were out but not an annoyance at all. The trail paralleling the drainage creek was only wet and a little muddy in some places. I thought it would be slippery coming back but it wasn’t. All in all a very nice, scenic hike and seeing the hills so green was a bonus.

Didn't have any zoom classes so decided to do a day hike here. First thing first, the trailhead location given on the WTA website is a bit off. When you see a yellow sign with "Green Gultch Road" on the left hand side before a creek, that's where you turn for the trailhead. WTA location is off by a quarter mile. 

For the first mile and a half, you are in a steady incline through a valley. The incline is not too steep but definitely works you calfs. There are some streams that run near and on the trail that make it a bit muddy, but it's bearable. 

Once you get out of the valley you reach a little plateau where the trails flattens out a bit before you reach a huge hill. The hill is probably the toughest part of the hike since it's a steep incline, but it's only for a half a mile or so.

After the hill, you reach a nice ridge that has some great views. This is probably there longest part of the hike. The trails flattens out like the plateau but there is a lot more snow. Some parts are in the shade so you are walking in a couple inches of snow, so be ready for your shoes to be soaked.

It could be hard to tell where the trail ends because after a gate, it splits off into two paths. The one on the right goes up a hill and ends so I'm guessing that's where it stops since the one on the left keeps going for miles.

Besides a couple who were leaving when I was driving, I was the only person hiking the entire time. Such great views and heard a lot of birds, but didn't see any animals though. Overall great hike to start off the season and a good hike if you wants a bit of a challenge.

Spring-like weather with temperatures in the 60's called for a visit to Green Gulch. The trail is a bit muddy from the thaw but is in otherwise good shape. I climbed up the hillside from the 2600' pass at about the 3 mile-mark in the upper basin for some views of the distant Blue Mountains and surrounding hills. I could spy some wintering elk on the higher ridges that looked fat and happy for this time of the year. 

The Green Gulch Trail was fairly easy to find, despite fairly vague directions. The geocoordinates I got from WTA, and put in Google Maps, suggested I go about a mile past the parking area (maybe because of the road construction?), but a large sign on the left of the road was a clear suggestion otherwise. I only had a backtrack a couple hundred feet to park near an old school house.

The first part of the trail follows a canyon valley a couple of miles before reaching the highlands. It was a steep climb but conditions were great. There were only a couple of areas of wet terrain causing minimum inconvenience (if you can claim slightly muddy ankles as such). Judging from the dormant fauna along the trail, spring conditions are likely stunning, but may cause areas to be overgrown if not maintained.

Once out of the canyon the trail opens up to large vistas with still some elevation to overcome. The trail climbs up to the first ridge and provides a wonderful view of the Grand Ronde River.

Shortly after the 4 mile mark the trail dips down into a small ravine with flowing water then to a gate. After the gate the trail splits. The route to the right climbs up a hill and peters out in at a round of rocks - which I suspect is the "correct" trail. The route to the left continues for many more miles and, judging from satellite photos, can be used to access Lime Hill.

The Green Gulch Trail is an excellent early season hike. It's also great for a leashed dog, as the road offers two lanes, one for each companion, and abundant watering holes.