The access road, FR6410, is in great condition. Not a single pothole. The trail has no number, it is just an extension of the road after the concrete barricade at the trailhead. A few feet into the trail begins a day of seeing all manner of fungi, mushrooms and lichen in white, gray, red, orange and in between. Most impressive to my untrained eye was the large white bear's head and the orange coral mushrooms. And on the large side of the flora were the giant cedars that had some been spared the early century cutting. Our group had done this three years ago but it was covered in snow so this time we got to see all of the exotic plants in late autumn.
The trail follows the river along to the southeast which is in view for most of time. the trail dips down at times very close to the water but the river always seems just out of touch unless you are willing to do a little scrambling. On the opposite side of the trail is a high sheer cliff with its base about two hundred yards off to the northwest.
We had lunch at a campground above a quiet section of the river about 0.25 miles from Coney Creek. The river there looks and sounds completely different at that point as it is nothing like the rapids and hundreds of little falls up to here.
The trail is in good condition but has a few areas of water flowing on it but it was easily avoidable and not deep. The one obstacle was a tree across the trail where we had to go over the large trunk and then under a large branch that was like skinning the cat through parallel bars. The trail climbs steadily but is gradual enough that we were surprised that we had done several hundred feet of gain. A slight hazard was the wet leaves covering wet rocks, especially on the return trip on the descent.
The are no restrooms at the trailhead and the facilities at Money Creek Campground are closed for the season. There is a restroom at the ranger station east on Hwy-2 just past Skykomish.
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