In early May we hiked the horse-and-hiker trails in Barnhartvale. We started at the Gardiner Road entrance off Barnhartvale Road and we hiked a 9.5 km loop route through the grasslands and the open forest on both double track and single track trails. Trail maps and signs help anyone new to the trails. We usually choose the outside loop, combining several trails inside the fenced area. For this day we saw a couple of other hikers and no horseback riders on the trails.
The route starts and finishes traversing open grassland sloes, then goes through open ponderosa pine forest then as it climbs through douglas fir forest on glaciated terrain.
Much of the area is surrounded by rocky hills. The cliffs of Buse Hill in the Robbins Range lie 6 km to the east. This will be another hike in the area in the next month.
Our hike was a little over 3 hours, a good spring route.
More Information:
- Barnes Lake Trails Hike
- Barnes Trails (YouTube)