Canyon Creek Trailhead to the Sinks, CA

As I mentioned in the overview, our trip itinerary was a 3-night backpack along the Canyon Creeks Trail, with a side trip to Boulder Creeks Lake, about a 22-mile adventure.

The drive from our home to the trailhead for the Canyon Creeks Hike was about 5 hours from our home. Getting there was very well spelled out in the guide books. Before getting to the trailhead, we stopped at the Weaverville Ranger Station to pick up a wilderness permit at the self-serve kiosk right outside the building. Herb had already obtained the required campfire permit online. We also signed a registration book where we listed our planned itinerary.

From the town of Weaverville, which is about 45 miles west of Redding, we continued straight on Highway 299 for 8 miles to the tiny town of Junction City, where we turned right onto Canyon Creek Road, and continued another 13.8 miles to a large parking lot at the end of the road, right next to the Ripstein Campground.

We arrived at the trailhead around 4:00 pm, just enough time to do our 3-mile hike into an area called the Sinks, where we planned to camp for the night. Our neighbors, as well as the guide books, had described this as a good place to stop on a first night.

We did the final checking of gear, loaded our packs on our backs, and set off on the trail for Canyon Creek. After a short distance, we came to a junction, Bear Creek to the right and Canyon Creek to the left.

The trail was pretty nondescript - no big views, just a peaceful forest of dogwood, maple, oak, and Douglas fir. We knew we were supposed to come to the Sinks at about the 3-mile point, so when we saw a spur trail off to the left at 2.9 miles, we took it. During the spring, there is supposed to be a little island nestled between two arms of a creek, but now everything was bone dry. We followed a dry creek bed until we found a spot flat enough to camp for the night.

I wasn’t particularly impressed, but Herb said that it was probably quite nice in the spring when water was flowing. We set up the tent and made dinner before it got dark.