Buckeye Canyon Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Commonly Backpacked · Fishing · River/Creek · Views · Waterfall · Wildflowers · Wildlife

There is not a lot of parking spaces. Park perpendicular to the road to leave more space for others.

This trail is underrated because it starts as a dusty road passing through unimpressive pines, with a view towards the rolling, sage-covered hills. Grazing cattle and dried cow-patties are everywhere. After two miles, things begin to change. We start passing green meadows, the hills become rockier and more rugged, and the trail is surrounded by a wide variety of wild flowers. In the later part, the creek has beautiful cascades, the wildflowers are thick and the rugged granite cliffs of Buckeye Ridge approach 12,000 feet.

The trail starts at a gate at the western end of the Buckeye Campground less than 2 miles from Buckeye Hot Springs. There is a second gate shortly beyond the first. Both gates are easily opened. The area between is private property, with a sign saying that access is controllable by the owner. This is not an issue, as long as you follow the road straight across.

The signed junction with the Eagle Creek Trail is about 100 yards after the 2nd gate. Continue straight ahead on the road and do not take any of the side trails or roads that lead up the mountain. The first 6 miles are an easy hike with only a gradual climb. At about 2.7 miles, the canyon turns and we get our first views the 11,000 foot granite peaks at the end of the canyon. At about 4 miles, the trail crosses Buckeye Creek. Exactly where was not obvious to me, but it is just before the thick, marshy forest.

Once across, hike up to a road that continues up the canyon. After the road ends, the trail is sometimes impossible to follow, but this is not a problem. Just continue across the meadows and up the canyon. After 6 miles, we leave the cow-patties and climb more steeply to enter "The Roughs". Avoid doing this on a hot, sunny afternoon.

The flowers are so thick that we have to wade through them, but they don't have thorns or pokey branches. At around 7.5 miles, the trail switchbacks steeply up a side stream with a nice waterfall. The cascades and pools of Buckeye Creek can be seen below. Across the canyon from a high point, among the rugged 11,000 foot peaks, you can see a contact point where metamorphic rock found in the northeastern part of the Sierras meets the granite typical of the rest of the Sierras.

At about 8.5 miles, we pass a great camping spot beneath large conifers next to Buckeye Creek. At 9.2 miles, we reach a signed junction with the left fork going to Buckeye Pass. The trail straight ahead leads to Kirkwood Pass and the Walker River.

A wide variety of wildflowers including mule ears, mountain iris, lupin, scarlet gilia, and many others. There a several groves of quaking aspen in the middle section