Alpine: Boulder Creek

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4

Blue line for day 4. Click for interactive map

The lake didn't brighten up so much as the day before as weather was coming in.

Bits of clouds passing over Alpine Lake.

And just up the hill, there's a valley covered over by clouds to see, too.

But this was all a preview of things to come and passed over. Still, it wasn't quite as hot as it had been, which was nice.

It can change so quickly.

The retreating clouds.

Back across what is a little bit of a rough crossing on big boulders for the outflow stream.

The boulders stay in place enough to get chutes.

There's still a little smoke in the valley as we start the long way down.

Daniil brought his loppers because he'd been on this trail before and knew they'd be needed. When we got to the much missed switchback, he was set to dig it out except he started doubting it being real. The brush really can eat a trail easily. For proof, I readied myself for something horrible and walking it. Blindly. From the trail to well over waist high was invisible to me. The trail was surprisingly smooth underfoot and the branches offered no resistance to my travel. It was still a mass of work to uncover.

Somehow I missed the hooded ladies' tresses on the way up.

The bog St. John's wort finishing off its blooms is a little less showy.

A last look at the waterfall on the outflow stream.

Looking back over a bit of typically brushy trail.

Oval-headed sweat bee on another Lemmon's Keckiella.

A look back up a less brushy bit of trail, but plenty rocky and steep.

Daniil wanted to stop by Boulder Creek, and so we did. It is not a very long spur along the Bear Creek Trail to find the creek and crossing. We found a campsite with fire ring pushing the trail aside. I think I found the old junction next to it, judged by the blazes on the trees.

Someone spent a lot of time defining the trail with steps near the crossing and the creek spends some time using it as its bed.

Waterfall on Boulder Creek just below the trail crossing.

Woodland pinedrops grew beside a log crossing the trail.

A camp, of sorts, a little on top of the trail.

Then we headed down through the trees, past the little bit of missing trail and plunged into the crossing without missing a beat. It had warmed with the elevation loss and the hour, so splashing through the water was nice. Others had been climbing the trail, so the carve out wasn't enough to stop them either. In the ford, we had to make our way around what looked like a youth camp who were lounging in the water at the far side of the crossing. Then it was up to the main trail and down some more.

Wary Columbian black-tailed deer along the main trail.

Once on the main trail we saw even more people and even some horses and mules coming up the trail. Still crowded on a Monday!

Deep Creek with its short drops.

Some shadows above the waterfall at Deep Creek.

Light plays on the bottom of the pool with shaded foam.

Deep Creek has what looks like the remnant of a ford that is still pretty good on one side. We followed it down for water and snacks.

Beside Deep Creek.

Then on and on down along the river in a not entirely downhill way.

A small piece of the long tower of denseflower Rein orchids.

Crossing Fire Camp Creek.

Stuart Fork Trinity River.

Almost a view within the canyon.

Before leaving, we had a look at the pipe from the "ditch" that follows the canyon far above the trail and is on display at the campground. They brought water all the way down from the lakes in the top of the canyon to mining operations far down the Trinity River. They used the water, which was very high pressure, to wash away much of Oregon Mountain as well and there's more information about that along CA-299 at the other end of the ditch.

*photo album*




©2025 Valerie Norton
Written 13 Oct 2025