2.1 hr
Overview
The best time to do this hike is during the months of September and October when HawkWatch International has volunteers at the top of Bonney Butte doing raptor counts and banding during the fall migration. This route gives you access using a trail from a paved road although you could also reach the Butte by driving awful FR 4891 via the Terrible Traverse (high clearance recommended) or the good gravel road to the Boulder Lake Trailhead. Take the Bonney Meadows Trail #471 up from FR 48, the Wamic Road. The trail switchbacks and then parallels the road north for a little while in woods of Douglas-fir, grand fir, western hemlock, western red-cedar, mountain hemlock, silver fir, western white pine, and western larch, with a varied understory of chinquapin, snow brush, vanilla leaf, bracken, vine maple, Oregon grape, and twin flower. The path heads up and then comes below paved FR 4890 before joining it. You walk 110 yards up this road to a four-way junction. Turn left at the junction with a spur road and go 30 yards before picking up the trail as it heads uphill. Pass a new wilderness board and switchback up. At a second switchback, there’s a Badger Creek Wilderness sign. (The Bonney Butte west slope was added to the Wilderness in 2009.) Before 2009, cattle were allowed to run in these woods, and hikers would be surprised by the large, clumsy beasts thundering off into the undergrowth. There’s a third switchback and then a long traverse up. Note the sign for the Buck Burn nailed to a tree. A small metal plate tells of two burns in c.1900 and c.1930. There are a few larger Douglas-firs that survived these fires, but most of the forest is regenerated mountain hemlock, noble fir and silver fir. Bear-grass is now the carpet. You can see Bonney Butte looming through the trees. Engelmann spruce enters the mix and grouseberry and huckleberry bushes begin to dominate the understory. Cross the dry gully of Buck Draw and listen for the sound of Bonney Creek below. Exit the wilderness and reach the notorious FR 4891. The t
Trail Stats
0.0 km
630 m
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Photos
400px-BonneyButteMap
400px-BonneyButteMap
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250px-BonneyTr3
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250px-BonneyHood
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250px-BonneyTr2
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250px-BonneyTr1
400px-BonneyRedtail1
400px-BonneyRedtail1