A new trail and day use area is open for public use in the Snoqualmie Valley.

The Camp Brown day use area is a family-friendly and ADA accessible area is 11 miles down the Middle Fork Road. It features a half-mile loop trail and offers scenic views of the Wild and Scenic Middle Fork Snoqualmie River.

Visitors can walk the gravel-lined trail through the forest and river. There are nine picnic sites with charcoal grate along the trail, and a short ramp gives visitors access to a gravel bar beside the river.

The site is also of historical interest. Camp Brown gets its name from Robert Brown, a civil engineer and surveyor who planned and supervised most of today’s Middle Fork roads and trails. He was killed by a train backing up near the site in 1928, and the trail was named in his honor.

The area once served as a logging camp for the North Bend Timber Company from 1929 to 1937. It was later used as a boys’ camp in the 1950s, and later as a USDA Forest Service guard station until the 1970s.

But after flood and human damage, the area’s riverside environment and vegetation was damaged.

In May 2019, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust worked with Northwest Trails and McClung Construction to build the trail, according to a press release from Mountains to Sound Greenway.

The Forest Service and Greenway Trust trail crews worked for approximately 30 days and 1,500 hours. Volunteers contributed an additional four days and more than 300 hours to complete the project. Local historian Brad Allen helped design a handful of interpretive signs along the trail.