My dog and I love it here. Expect a work out, as the terrain is tough at times. If you do it right, expect to come home dirty as well. Many different routes to explore, some signage can be helpful for those without an internal compass or electronic navigation, I just wing it. Some birds otherwise pretty quiet, not Many others on the trails, mountain biking to the North looks very thrilling, suggesting boots for hikers as it can get pretty muddy, have fun! read more

Big Gulch Trail - Heart loves this park - Hiking Near Me

The entrance to the Big Gulch Trail system from 92nd Street Park is steep, something to keep in mind if afraid of heights and/or steep inclines. Stairs provide a way down, however there is no railing. There are other less-steep entrances to the trail system from different directions. Parking is available at 92nd Street Park if adventuring there as well. Throughout the trail system I have found singing birds, waiting spiders, quiet squirrels watching hikers/walkers as we pass under the branches of the trees they are perched in, and colorful vegetation. A high sensory input experience of a good kind. Tall trees filter out much of the direct sun rays, perfectly providing shade and a reprieve from warmer temperatures in the sunlight on a hot day. Fun and relaxing place to tune-in to nature. read more

This is a lush forest of conifers and maple trees. An amazing history of logging and forest regrowth is displayed on trail signs along the trail. A creek runs alongside the whole trail. It is peaceful and wonderful way to "bathe in the forest". I saw some bunnies and a few birds. There are two nice log bench areas about 3/4 of the way (due West) from the library trailhead. The local residential street at the end of the trail has a spectacular view of the bay. This was a fairly easy hike some slightly steep areas, and about 4 miles round trip from the library to the water treatment/residential area. Enjoy and conserve. Please do your best to pick up and respect environment. read more

Big Gulch Trail - Hiking Near Me

Trails, two updated play areas, and beautiful trees to admire, the only downside is that the bathrooms were closed due to recent vandalism. There are two large grassy areas so kids can run free, and a large parking lot which fills on weekends with families picnicking or playing on the updated equipment, or walking their dog on one of the numerous trails that connect with other neighborhoods. read more

Big Gulch Trail - Trail - Hiking Near Me

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Covid has me walking more often and seeking out new places to walk around the area. It's great to be able to get out and socially distance on the trail, and enjoy nature at the same time. I picked up a local hiking guide and was certain I had been to this place previously, but it seems I was mistaken. I had confused this with Japanese Gulch which is also in the Mukilteo area. The trail starts in a local park (beware bathrooms are currently closed) with playground equipment and a parking lot. The guidebook listed this trail as 2.5 miles round trip and having little elevation, but whatever it was talking about we clearly missed the turn around point. Some of the signage here can be a little confusing if you don't know where you are heading. My partner seemed discouraged by the descent as this trail starts with a lot of stairs entering the gulch, but claimed he was aware of the definition of a gulch. This area seems to be a hidden valley behind some houses, it's easy to forget they are there if you don't look too high. It does make for a perfect way to spend a fall day. There's a small bridge to cross at some point. A few interpretive signs. We saw a few dogs. There was one fallen tree we had to walk around. I was disappointed this did not lead to the water, but happy to be able to walk back to the car thru the neighborhood making for a roundtrip walk with some alternate scenery. read more

Great trail. Not too long and well groomed. Only major incline are the steps you have to walk back up when you are done with the hike to get back to the park. Beautiful nature hike that is actually below a couple neighborhoods. You wouldn't know this as the gulch trail feels like you're way out in the woods. This trail is well maintained year round and easy enough for small kids. read more

It was a lovely day for a good hike. We choose the north fork trail that was passed the restroom on the left side. There was this gradual downhill stairway that was pretty cool. Also the bridge that is made of tree roots, if you dare. That was fun. Then We chose the West fork for another mile. This part had a steep view of the river to the left. There was a stinky part but not too bad. Just cover your nose there were some nice benches toward the end of the trail. This is not a loop so you have three choices. You can either walk farther to the beach. Go back the same way. Or take the street which we did where you will envy the houses that has an awesome view of the Possession sound. Wow this was a long mile back to the park. read more

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This is a limited review as we spent only 45 minutes to an hour here. There are multiple trails and we explored only limited portions. We parked at the park and found the trailhead (see photo). Very quickly, we found ourselves walking down steep steps downwards to continue on the trail. I was a bit surprised by this as many of reviews say this is an easy trail and family friendly, blah, blah. Well, not enough of them mentioned this initial decline (and thus end part to return upwards). The rest of the walk was pretty good, mostly flat-ish though we weren't sure where we were going or if there's a reward at the end - water view or whatnot. There are lots of cool new tree growths from stumps and one particularly awesome tree with a fantastic tree root (see photos). Many trees lined the trail we walked; even without leaves, I can see the abundance of them. In the summer time, this is probably a very nice well covered and cool-temperature walk to take. read more

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This hike was super awesome. I recommend straying from the path and exploring. I'm more adventurous than my gf, she didn't like this, but I did. It was really cool and there's a lot of neat things to do and see that are not on the main trail. Make your own trail, explore. read more

Big Gulch Trail - Hiking Near Me

I really wanted to like this. I've read other reviews favorably comparing this to Meadowdale, another area hike that runs through a gulch (Lund's Gulch, in that case) down to the water. Meadowdale suffers from being overcrowded; this is exacerbated by the fact that it's pretty much a straight shot from the parking lot down to the water... there's nowhere for all those people to go but single file like ants. This park, if it ever attains that level of popularity, will suffer the same problem. But there are some hurdles to that happening. I parked at the 92nd Street Park, which isn't even clearly marked as a park, across from the power substation. Then I wandered around a bit looking for where the trail starts. Found it, and headed down some steep steps (I thought I'd dread those coming back up, but they weren't too bad), and proceeded south to where this trail hooks up with the east-west run that goes along the stream. The first section was just okay, with some road noise and the backs of apartment buildings or condos looming over it. As it heads west this looks a bit more like something you'd find up in the mountains, with some old if not untouched stands of cedar and western hemlock on the opposing side of the stream. (I was tempted to explore over there, but the stream looks difficult to cross). Soon, though, things start getting weird. There are strange metal grates and cement things and pipes sticking out of the ground and... oh my God, what is that smell? Then some signs about "sewer valves". I don't know what sewer valves are, but I can understand why nobody wants them near their house. I'm not sure if I walked down here on a particularly stinky day, but wow. There was an informational sign about nurse logs and all that and I couldn't even stand to read it while enveloped in what seemed like a cloud of human waste and laundry detergent. Fortunately the smelly area isn't that long, and after that the trail runs along a picturesque ridge, and the trail work here is impressive. The drop-off is steep in places and this could be dangerous for kids or excitable dogs, but for reasonably sober adults with good balance it's neat, and not at all something you'd expect to find in Mukilteo. After that the trail winds down the side of a hill, past an area that looks like it would make a fine campsite if one was allowed to camp in here, and down to where I was expecting to see a beach. However. Upon meeting a narrow road one is met with several intimidating signs warning that access to the area is at the consent of "the owner", another that says NO BEACH ACCESS, and finally, if one has the nerve to approach close enough (and I did, after walking all the way down here), signs warning people that the whole area belongs to the Mukilteo Sewer District. And a big gate topped with barbed wire, in case you didn't get the hint. So: kind of a mixed bag. The good news is, the disparate parts of this trail system ARE hooked up now, and I didn't see much evidence of the mud that others were complaining about -- someone's been busy bringing a lot of crushed rock in here. But the odor problem is real and is rather jarring; people who are looking for an outdoors adventure are going to be put off by something that smells more like an outhouse adventure. And finally the lack of beach access is, for me at least, a deal-killer. If I'm going to walk down a big hill to within a few hundred yards of the water, I want to SEE it at least. read more

This is a awesome low impact hike hidden right in the middle of Mukilteo. I love to start at the library and work my way down. It can be jogged also for a more advanced workout. Take note that there is not any beach access at the bottom of the trail. It can get dark very fast and dusk with the heavy tree cover and streams can run over the trail making it mucky and slippery. At the bottom if the trail one can take conquer the steep paved hill for a beautiful view of the sound, truly exceptional at sunset. Leaving from the library and running up 92nd around is about 5 miles. read more

Great and easy hike with kids. It is so green!!!! I'm from CA and we just don't see green like this!! As a photographer I just took it all in. What an amazing place. I'm just floored that it is in the middle of a residential area!!! It's gorgeous! We had a blast. read more

Big Gulch Trail - Hiking trail in Big Gulch - summertime Greenery!! - Hiking Near Me

great hike awesome pics. it wasn't too long and my dog was able to come along.

The 92nd street entrance is not clearly marked, it's in the SE corner of the park, farthest from 92nd street and near the speedway. We went down there on a sunny morning after a few days of heavy rain. We found a steep set of stairs leading maybe 60 to 80 feet down into the gulch. Then we hiked about 20 minutes, all downhill but not steep, before we decided there was too much mud to proceed. My guess is, that was about a mile to a mile and a half, and it was slightly challenging because of mud and old mudslides. It was really beautiful. In some spots people had laid fresh branches (the wind had knocked quite a few down) into the mud to make it more passable. I'm not sure how much farther the trail goes. From what I can tell -looking at a vague map http://www.ci.mukilteo.wa.us/files/BigGulchBrochure.pdf -there is maybe another mile before a "gap" where the trail has been designed but not finished. Coming back we veered off to the south and took the trail that comes up on the West side of the Mukilteo Library. Our total journey was an hour or so and I'd guess we went between 2.5 and 3 miles (another mile to hike back to our start on 92nd street using surface streets). I've seen various sources saying this hike has an incline of either 534 feet or 133 feet. I'm guessing we experienced about a 100 to 150foot change in elevation. The city of mukilteo office had a very nice person return my call and tell me they didn't have easy access to that information and that "finishing" the trail is on their to do list. They said they do have it verified that there's about 3400 linear feet of unfinished trail in the "gap". I thought it was so nice that someone called me and talked to me about it. Neighbors have helped the trail in many places, and it would be great to see that continue. We ran into quite a few other walkers, even though it was starting to drizzle. I am planning to go back again. It looks (on google maps) like there's a dual trail from the east side of the library and from the west side of the library. I'm just curious about that. I also might try to hike in from the West side of the trail, but only because I'm sometimes in the neighborhood. read more

Excellent place to hike, walk, or play. So many photo ops!! Once you walk down the trail it's like Jurassic Park!! Very clean, quiet and beautiful! read more

I love this trail. It's feels like wilderness and is very shady from the big trees. Unfortunately, it just ends on an access road, but walk up the road to the neighborhood for fantastic views among beautiful homes. read more

Coming from northern California, this reminds me of the Santa Cruz mountains--very green and lush with big trees. We had a couple of hours before our Boeing tour, so we took went for a hike starting from the park to the west trail. It's beautiful in August, and not very muddy at all. There is some sewer smells along the way, but just walk quick past the areas. Our kids enjoyed the shady hike too because it wasn't too hilly. The stairs aren't too bad either. Parking was easy since there were few people on the trail. read more