2.2 hr
Overview
This hike is strictly for those who wish to plumb a remote stretch of valley little visited and devoid of the obvious delights that attract the casual hiker: sparkling lakes, high viewpoints, and golden meadows. In fact, all those attractions are not far away, should you wish to indulge, and can be attained by an easy extension although in so doing, you will deprive yourself of the thrill of the chase, so to speak, in finding your way down a semi-abandoned trail. To begin this hike, you will leave the masses immediately, heading in the opposite direction from the day trippers and overnight campers that throng Boulder Lake on a summer weekend. Your course takes you down into and out of the remote upper valley of Boulder Creek, with its impressive old growth, and returns via the dilapidated Crane Prairie Trail. But yes, if you really insist, there are those other options . . . From the parking area, walk up the road about 50 yards to the overflow parking and find the unsigned Boulder Lake Trail leading down to the right. Immediately enter an old growth slope forest of Engelmann spruce, Douglas-fir, noble fir, and mountain hemlock. Cross a small bench and continue the descent, veering right to drop in and out of a gully and reach the footbridge over Boulder Creek. From the creek, it’s a few yards up to the multi-signed Boulder Creek-Boulder Lake Trail Junction. Some of the signs here bear the former name of the watercourse: Crane Creek. Go left and start hiking up the valley on a trail that is basically maintained by mountain bikers although not particularly popular even with that group. You will first pass along, and duck under, a huge 220-foot Douglas-fir lying on its side. There are many other large Douglas-fir and Engelmann spruce in these woods. Talus slopes below Grasshopper Point to the right are rimmed with larch trees that shine a brilliant yellow in the fall. You will also observe stands of aspen on the slope. Drop into a meadow and cross a brook issuing from a spring. In younger silver fir woods, pas
Trail Stats
0.0 km
652 m
0 m
0 m
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Photos
400px-UpperBoulderCreekMap
400px-UpperBoulderCreekMap
250px-Fringed_grass-of-parnassus%2C_Crane_Prairie
250px-Fringed_grass-of-parnassus%2C_Crane_Prairie
250px-CranePrairie1
250px-CranePrairie1
250px-Boulder_Creek_valley_from_the_Gunsight_Trail
250px-Boulder_Creek_valley_from_the_Gunsight_Trail
250px-Big_Douglas-fir%2C_Boulder_Creek
250px-Big_Douglas-fir%2C_Boulder_Creek
400px-Footbridge_over_Boulder_Creek
400px-Footbridge_over_Boulder_Creek