Mount Apatite — Attraction in Auburn

This is a great multi use park with a wilderness feel literally five minutes off the highway. Rock collecting is fun (But hard work to find the good stuff). The real fun is the challenging and scenic trails for both pedestrians and mountain bikers. Park is dog friendly and good for supervised kids. The trail map is pretty good and trails are getting better marked every year. Plan on spending the afternoon but go back often. Always something new to discover there. UPDATE 4/2023 New signs and maps have been installed on many trails and the map on the parks website is new. Signs now forbid swimming or diving in the quarries. I continue to suggest that new visitors enter park at garfield road entrance as this is by far the best marked and most scenic. It is still easy to get disoriented at the rear entrance unless you know it well. UPDATE 3/2024 Trail markings comtinue to be updated. Today I noticed that some trails are identified by "road signs" with the trail name rather than just a color. Signage is still confusing and I saw one sign saying "you are here" clearly indicating red trail but with a blue blaze painted on the same tree. Google maps does work somewhat within the park but newbies are still best served by remaining on the blue trail and avoiding bike trails or any trails beyond the mining area. Most pf this was still VERY waterlogged today. Still a great destination but know your limits and keep kids on the blue trails where you...

Nice trail ! It has a little bit of everything. There were a few spots were the ground was mushy due to snow melting, but the rest of it was fantastic. A lot of peaks and valleys. There a few wooden benches scattered throughout the blue trail.

I had seen some complaints about the trails not being marked well enough so I didn’t know what to expect. But I felt the markings were good enough for me. Anytime there was a diverging path or fork in the road, there were clear markings for the blue trail and I had no issues following the path. I can’t speak to some of the other trails though.

In terms of difficulty I would rate it somewhere between a 2 or 3 out of 5. A one being a relatively easy to navigate trial with little to no elevation. At two different points you reach about 500 ft. of elevation. Many winding paths, I found it to be a fun trail, all things considered. Will definitely look to revisit around spring time and...

A very fun hidden gem of a park. Lots of intersecting trails make it easy to get from one area to another, and they updated the signage to make it clear where you are at many intersections. We went in early spring and the mud was very light or easy to go around. My daughters wore their regular sneakers and they were not muddy at all when we left. There are many spots that you can check out and try to pick, hammer, or dig your way through the mining area. Bringing your own equipment is encouraged and apparently very common; most other groups that were there had buckets and small tools with them. There were no bugs at all, but this was only April. There were some great views, and some ponds scattered throughout that provide a great place for a picnic lunch. We will definitely...