Trail Overview
Continuing the climb from Buckeye Creek, the overall environment of Up Little Boulder offers an incredible, expansive journey high into the Shasta National Forest that ultimately brings you to the edge of the majestic Trinity Alps Wilderness. This highly scenic, wide-open Forest Service route is a fantastic drive that consistently rewards visitors with sprawling, panoramic views over the surrounding hillsides. Along the way, you will drive through the striking, silvery skeleton trees left behind by the 2021 Haypress wildfire, which wonderfully open up the landscape to reveal other logging roads switchbacking deep into the canyon below. As seen in the photos, the route heavily features comfortable shelf road sections carved into the hillsides. Though some of these hillside stretches occasionally narrow to a single-car width, there are very frequent, generously sized turnouts available to easily pass oncoming traffic. The journey gracefully concludes at a spacious, flat dirt parking area situated right before the popular Boulder Lake trailhead, complete with informational kiosks. It is a highly recommended, welcoming destination for anyone looking to explore the mountains.
Difficulty
Earning a mild difficulty rating of 2 out of 10, the road surface alternates consistently between stretches of well-graded gravel and sections of smooth, packed dirt. Throughout the drive, you will encounter only very minor, easily manageable obstacles, such as occasional embedded rocks protruding slightly from the roadbed and small, shallow washboarding. To navigate this route comfortably, simply maintain a steady, controlled pace to protect your undercarriage from the occasional rocky patches, and be mindful to actively use the designated dirt turnouts when yielding the right-of-way on the narrower shelf sections.
