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Trip Report    

Day Hike - Green River Natural Area

This day hike was a part of the Spring Hiking Series offered by the Tacoma Branch. The many spring wildflowers just beginning to bloom were definitely the highlight of the day for me. The one stretch of river that we hiked to was beautiful and left me wanting to explore this Natural Area more to find other access points to the river.

Becky Andrade Becky Andrade
April 11, 2026
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The trails in this area were free of any downed logs, but one section of the trail (off the Potter Trail that leads to the river) had a spur trail taped off on both ends for what we assumed was a downed tree across the trail.  There was one stretch of fairly steep trail heading down to the river that was a bit difficult to maneuver due to many "baseball sized" rocks - more difficult going down than up, and trekking poles were definitely helpful.  The trails definitely see a lot of use by horses - many piles (old and fresh) as well as deep hoof prints in muddy areas were seen throughout this area, especially closer to the river where the mud was more common.  We abandoned the main trail to the river (with less than 100 yards to go) due to a wide swath of deep mud in favor of a "social trail" nearby that led to a beautiful stretch of river.  At this time of year some stretches of the trail had mud and a few easy stream crossings.  I suspect that as the weather becomes drier, so will the trails.  

The highlight of this trip was definitely the newly blooming wildflowers, with Trillium possibly being the flower of the day - not in terms of numbers, but its beauty and setting.  We saw and heard numerous birds (Pacific Wren were particularly vocal, and a Downy Woodpecker at the trailhead was busy AND loud) as well as a beaver pond that is showing signs of a lot of recent activity.  This trail is not the traditional "climb up to the peak and go back down"; in fact, you drop down a few hundred feet at the beginning along an abandoned service road to the floor of the canyon (meaning that you climb back up for the return to the trailhead).  There is a nice option to climbing back up the road with a traditional trail going up the hill that includes a lot of well-leveled switchbacks - it made for a very nice end to the day.  The floor of the canyon/valley is anything but flat with numerous ups and downs throughout the area.  Our stats for the day consistently measured just over 7 miles for the day, but the elevation gain ranged from about 700 feet to 1000 feet depending on whose GAIA stats we trusted; the hike was posted as being 500 feet of elevation gain, and we were on the trail for just over 4 hours.IMG_7625.jpegAt the bottom of the initial road down in to the canyon is a Honey Bucket in good shape as well as an open area (which was an old homestead) that has a few benches and picnic table where we stopped for a lunch break.  We saw many wildflowers along the way with a lot more to come:  trillium, red flowering currant, oregon grape, salmonberry, spring beauty, bleeding heart, and a hooker's fairy bells on the verge of blooming.  Light sprinkles in the middle of our hike were a pleasant addition to the sounds of the day, but at that point the rain was light and we were warm enough that we didn't feel the need to "gear up".  Our hike leader noted that this is a beautiful hike in the fall for the color due to the large number of Big Leaf Maple in the area.  

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