690 Wash Creek is in the Boise National Forest, east of Garden Valley. The trail is only an hours drive from the busier Boise area, so it's an ideal destination for some quick 4-wheeling fun. The trail is just a few hundred feet south of the beautiful South Fork Payette River, which is world renowned for its whitewater rafting and kayaking competitions. The scenery along the trail and creek is spectacular, especially in the spring and fall. Your dogs will be welcome on this trail but keep them close at hand.
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Travel north on Highway 55 for 14 miles to Banks and turn right on Banks Lowman Road. Continue east 11.7 miles to Alder Creek Road and turn right. Drive 0.3 miles to South Fork Road and turn left. Drive 0.6 miles to the trailhead for 690 Wash Creek and turn right.
Trail was open and probably passable but with a 18" of snow, I decided not to attempt solo without a winch. Will try again when the snow melts. Picture is at the northern trail head.
We mapped Mica Dome a few days ago which is a spur off Horn Creek so we welcomed the chance to re-run this great trail. Absolutely beautiful in the springtime. We wish this fantastic campsite was more removed from the nearest home, about 100 yards, but it is what is.
Pat and I came out today to run Wash Creek Ridge Trail today which is off of Waypoint 4 from Wash Creek so of course it gave us the opportunity to rerun this trail. The trail is in great shape and very beautiful with the spring growth still in evidence. There was a vehicle with trailer at Waypoint 2 and we met up with the 2 side x sides while we were up on the ridge, very nice folks. Of interest is, there is a gap between this trail Trails End, and an intersection on the ridge trail with FS 690. The MVUM shows that portion closed but the trail looks like everybody is traveling it. A phone call to Emmett Ranger District is in order. A very fun day was had by all.
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Dennis Clark was born in Los Angeles in 1942 and after 76 years of living in So Cal he moved to Emmett, Idaho with his wife Patricia, has four adult children with many grand and great grandchildren. He has loved the outdoors since his Cub Scout and Boy Scout days while camping with the family. He's an archer, hunter and fisherman but no longer wishes to harm animals. He has been involved with photography since the 1960's. He became more of a serious hiker in 2010 when he started Geocaching and has hiked the three tallest peaks in So Cal, Mt San Jacinto, Mt San Gorgonio and Mt Baldy, along with most of the lesser peaks in search of caches. Geocaching started his love for the USFS Trail system as he used the trails frequently to get to certain trailheads. He had a 2002 Ford Ranger 2wd and its amazing where that little pickup took him. In 5 years of weekly geocaching he was only stuck once in some Palm Springs sand. His 2016 Wrangler Sport Unlimited was purchased in 2015. He has become quite lazy in the hiking department as he can now drive to most locations. He's looking forward to posting some trails and don't hesitate to ask him for any help you might need.
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