A Book about Life, Big Trees, Family, and why we go to the Middle Fork

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Hikes and Tours in The Middle Fork and to Visit Old Growth

      This is a collection of hikes and driving tours which take you to old growth trees and forests. Some are in the Middle Fork Valley but many are not.

      Our intent at www.middleforkgiants.com is not to repeat the many great trail guides that are out there. Our purpose is to present various sites, side-trips, and route descriptions that are not easily available. As a result, we do the following:

- Wherever possible we provide a link to an established, free-access trail description. Our preference is the Washington Trails Association.

- We highly encourage you to obtain up-to-date Green Trails maps (available from REI) and provide the appropriate map numbers. To cover the entire Middle Fork you can purchase:
      -- Mt. Si No. 174
      -- Skykomish No. 175
      -- Bandera No. 206
      -- Snoqualmie Pass No. 207
      -- (optional for those intending to go to the Dutch Miller Mine): Stevens Pass No. 176

- We rate each hike by our very simple difficulty scale. You should always know what you are doing and stay on established trails unless you have extensive off-trail experience in the Pacific Northwest.

trail difficulty

Venturing into the wilderness can be dangerous, always pack the ten essentials, appropriate maps for the area, and tell someone where you are going.

When in doubt, backtrack until you know where you are at. This is one of the single best ways of staying alive!

The Middle Fork Trail

The Middle Fork Trails goes from the Gateway Bridge (at mile 11.8 on the Middle Fork Road) all the way to Dutch Miller Gap. This is the premier trail in the Middle Fork Valley and is easy to access and to hike. It can roughly be divided into 3 sections, with the first section from the Middle Fork Trailhead (the Wilderness Gateway) to the Dingford crossing. The link below will take you to more details on the Middle Fork Trail

Hiking the Middle Fork Trail

The Pratt Valley

The Pratt Valley is a uniquely remote area. As of January 2010, there are no maintained trails into the Pratt. Use some caution here. You will be far from help, your cell phone probably won't work, and there are opportunities to get into trouble. The Middle Fork River, the Pratt River, and Kaleetan Creek are dangerous, if not impossible, to cross except during dry times like late July through September.

That being said, the Pratt is a magic place.

Distance (one way): approx. 3 miles, Middle Fork trailhead to start of Pratt Valley trail. 7.5 miles from the start of the Pratt Valley Trail to the connector trail to Pratt Lake. 2.3 miles from the Pratt Valley trail to Pratt Lake. (take these distances with a grain of salt, it is frequently hard to tell where these trails begin and end)

Green Trails Maps: Mount Si No. 174 and Bandera 206

Hiking the Pratt Valley

Old Growth Trails outside of the Middle Fork

When it comes to finding old growth near Seattle, this is about as good as it gets. A two mile (total) out and back with a good sampling of what old growth and even a couple of giants. Remember, though, this is just an apetizer, the big ones are bigger and there truly are complete forests of these.

A close big tree to Seattle and easy to get to.

This old growth tree is the tallest tree in Seattle.

A convient old growth grove near Snoqualmie Pass.

I have heard there is old growth hidden in the Cedar Divide (the area south of I-90 and west of Snoqualmie Pass) but haven't confirmed it. I mainly just like this website for finding some quirky hikes that can't help but appeal to anyone who loves the Middle Fork. Whitebark is also the hiker whose trail description I used for entering the Pratt Valley. I really like how he starts his site:

Disclaimer: The author does not guarantee the accuracy of the following information. It is probably all screwed up. Furthermore, hiking is a insanely dangerous sport that should be avoided by everybody. The author recommends that you stay at home and watch TV. If you are foolish enough to go hiking, use this information at your own risk.

Whitebark, you are one of us!!

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