The road is fixed and driveable to the parking lot.
This is among the best old growth forest hikes near Seattle. We chose to drive the full Mountain Loop Highway; through Granite Falls to the trailhead, and continued out through Darrington.
Several cars were in the parking lot, and as we were putting our cameras together, a family with 4 children exited the trail, happy from a day of walking the trail and enjoying the warm, sunny rocks at the riverbank a few miles in.
We didn't go very far; we had arrived very late in the day, and there were so many wonderful things to look at! The mushrooms and fungus are coming up; chantarelles, russulae, coral fungus, some wierdo-looking brown stuff (they look like honey mushrooms but I don't think they are), and I was happy to find a beautiful earthstar, and mushroom that I had only seen pictures of.
Skunk cabbage leaves as big as any I had ever seen are still green and lush this late in the year. We even saw a few bleeding hearts in bloom, as well as spring beauty!
This is such a beautiful place. Last year I hiked to the Red Mountain Lookout -that trail shares the same trailhead as the N Fk Sauk, and shoots off of it almost immediately (look to the left, hard to find in the lush forest). Both of these trails (Red Mtn and N Fk Sauk) have huge old growth trees to gawk at in wonder.
This trail is well-maintained (not logged it out yet, because the road just opened last week. We encountered only a couple of easy blowdowns, but I understand there are others farther in).
Thanks to MBSNF for getting the road opened for us!
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