Trail Description
Baldy Creek Trail # 1603 lies almost entirely within the North Fork John Day Wilderness, providing access to the remote Baldy Creek drainage country, Baldy Lake, and the open ridges above the Cable Cove area. The trail follows and crosses Baldy Creek many times. It passes spruce, fir, and lodgepole pine forest; grassy openings: and some boggy areas. Baldy Lake sits in a serene subalpine basin under Mt. Ireland. The fire lookout on top of the peak can be seen from the lake’s north shore. One-quarter mile before Baldy Lake, a trail forks off across the head of the east fork of Baldy Creek up to the end of Forest Road 5540-920 just below Crown Point. For a sweeping view of the historic Cable Cove mining area, take a short walk up the old road which has no public vehicle access.
Current Conditions
This trail is generally clear of snow from early July to late September. Expect winter debris (down trees, etc.) in the early season. Trail may not be maintained on a regular basis – obstacles on the trail may be present year-round.
Trip Types
Hiking, Backpacking, Horse Riding
We only hiked 1.25 miles of the trail, but there were approx. 10 downed logs. One fell recently and was blocking the entire trail. We broke the branches off, so the trail is now visible on the other side, but additional work is needed. Other than the logs, the trail appeared to be in good shape. I didn’t grab any photos of the fallen logs, but I’m attaching a few photos of the trail and bridges. This is a fun, kid-friendly trail!
Hi guys!
Wow, so proud of the TSP work you all accomplished this summer-way to go!
I just wanted to suggest the Baldy Lake trail needing tree removal—-really bad! We went in from the upper trail (as opposed to the Creek Trail) but most of the downed trees are above the trail merge.
For backpackers with kids and a dog, we found ourselves climbing around, under, over etc.
please consider cleaning this trail up.
Thanks for all you are doing for our community and forest!
The TSP cut out the Baldy Lake Trail on October 2nd, 2021. They removed downed trees from the upper trailhead all the way to the lake. Cutting out the Creek Trail is high on our priority list and we’ll post here when that has been cut out. Thanks for the trail reports!
July 15th 2022 – The Trailhead Stewardship project is currently working on Baldy Creek Trail. They have cut out down logs on ~2 miles of the trail. They will continue working on clearing out the rest of the trail (there are several large blowdown areas and many down trees) over the next several weeks.
The Trailhead Stewardship Project Crew has finished cutting out the Baldy Creek Trail and removed about 50 down trees.