Northern State Ghost Town — Friday, Apr. 4, 2025

While we have been to Northern State multiple times. We usually just stay on the main loop. Today we had the time and wanted to explore the Hill Creek area of the trails! 5/5 recommend having the time to go check out the Hill Creek Loop! It is amazing! The pumphouse bridge is really cool but just wait until you see the song sparrow bridge. It was so beautiful and worth the hike. The trail is almost all gravel and accessible to all, except maybe the distance. I think some strollers could make it out there. Flowers are starting to show including trillium, bleeding hearts and miners lettuce. My 9 year olds favorite flower is the bleeding heart and he was so excited to see them blooming. It’s also worth the little trek up Big Rock. That’s a very cool rock you can climb up. We ran into some trail crew and talked to them for a bit. My kids loved these trails as well. The forest is lovely, the creeks were beautiful, flowers and bridges, oh my, it was worth it! The old buildings and barns are cool, too. We also check those out. If you have younger children that can, some of the graffiti is offensive but there was a few snails, flowers and mushrooms graffiti that was nicer than all the profanity. We hiked 4.25 miles.