TH: We parked at the at the first parking lot which didn't have any facilities. Apparently the next one (about 2 miles away) has a toilet and picnic tables.

Trail: This is a great family friendly hike through a beautiful forest. We hiked with two 4 year olds. The berries are out and the forest is green! Like most Washington "river" trails you mainly experience the beautiful forest rather than seeing the river. The trail just has peak-a-boos of the river and sometimes can dip your toes in. Overall a great walk in the woods.

Saturday morning, my teen and I hiked both the ADA loop and river trail of the Old Sauk, as described in the trail description. We parked at the middle trailhead, hiked the ADA loop south to the path to Murphy Creek, then back to the north trailhead along the river, and finally completed the ADA loop.

The picnic tables and vault toilet are in great shape, and looked like a lot of the trail had been recently mowed. I think we picked up a couple of tiny pieces of trash we saw, but there really wasn't any to speak of. We did find probably 20 large crab shells in Murphy Creek, which (if I had to guess), someone had probably thrown or dumped from the bridge over Highway 530. We just kind of scratched our heads and left those where they were...

We saw very few people - we had the trail to ourselves and saw no one else at all until after noon. I suspect this might be a more popular trail for the "off-season"...which might also explain why there were still tons and tons of very ripe huckleberries. There were a few ripe blackberries and thimbleberries along they way, as well. We skipped the granola bars we brought for lunch, but most definitely didn't go hungry. It was also a warm day, so folks might have opted for higher elevation trails, but with the shade from the forest and a cool breeze off the river, it was pleasant. We had two liters of water each, and finished pretty much all of it. 

We saw four very shy garter snakes and a few birds, but otherwise not a lot of wildlife. Down by the river itself, we saw recent dog or possibly coyote tracks, and some older raccoon tracks. Given the mud and sand where we made our way down, I was a little surprised not to find any other tracks. Toward the south end of the trail, where the river is no longer visible, we did see one spot where something (I'm guessing a bear) probably came up through the brush from the river area for some huckleberries, and left a signature dropping pile right in the trail itself.

Great outing, even for a warm day, and we were pleasantly surprised at the unexpected solitude. That solitude, the easy drive, some good weather, ripe huckleberries, and -- last but not least -- some quality time with my teenager, made this a huge win. The trail description says six miles round trip, but we wandered around quite a bit, and my fitness tracker and GPS showed closer to eight. Good times.

Perfect hike for a hot day with a toddler. The parking lot is right off the highway, and had plenty of spots. The trail was mostly shaded, and had lots of huckleberries for our foraging toddler to enjoy! We saw a few other cars parked in the lot, but didn't meet anyone else on the trail. Trail is in excellent condition!!

My wife and I hiked this on a warm Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We arrived to the middle trailhead slightly after 8am and were the only hikers there.  We encountered just 2 other groups on the entire hike.

The trail was in good condition throughout and seemed to have been recently brushed, as it was not overgrown as a few reports suggested.  We hiked mainly in the shade (very important with the temperature) and were often able to see and even sometimes dip toes in the river from various points.

We stopped in Darrington on the way back for a fill up and were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere at Mo's as well.  Overall an accessible and great hike all year round.

We headed out to do trail work on this trail with WTA. We met up at the trailhead with the crew a lil before 8:30 AM and from what I could tell, all the cars at the trailhead were the crews. There is a pit toilet at the trailhead that had TP and was decently clean. 

We worked on pruning back the trail and widening it and rebuilding of a platform that overlooks the Sauk River. 

Several groups came hiking by while we were working. It was in the 80s this day. Sounded like WTA was out there Fri/Sat/Sun working on this trail. 

Trailhead had a lot of picnic tables and would be a great place to eat lunch after a short hike!