New Hiking, Off-Road Trails Coming To Clark County

Washington DNR gave final approval today for a major expansion of the trail system in the Yacolt Burn State Forest.

The new plans covers about 40,000 acres, nearly all of them in Clark County.

The details include:

• Adding 78-miles of new trails. The hiking system will expand from 35 to 55 miles, and the official motorized system will grow from 14 to 73 miles.
• Removing about 170-miles of unauthorized off-road trails.
• Creating two zones in the forest. One for “quiet” users like hikers, and the other for the noisier off-roaders. DNR says this will reduce conflicts between the two user groups and improve safety. It’s used a similar approach at other forests in Washington and likes the results. In Oregon, the Mt. Hood National Forest is also working on a plan to separate quiet and motorized users.
• Improving some of the current campsites and trailheads and building new ones.

DNR estimates that two million people live within 45-minutes of the Yacolt Burn State Forest, and says it needed a better plan to handle the growing use of the area.

By the way, the Yacolt Burn is named for a huge wildfire that swept through the area in September, 1902. In just 36-hours, more than 238,000 acres went up in flames and 38-people in Clark, Skamania and Cowlitz counties were killed. Another fire in 1929 torched an additional 153,000 acres.

For More Information:

Yacolt Burn State Forest Recreation Plan

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