Red Cedar Creek

Getting There

Red Cedar Creek is the middle one of the three big granite canyons on the east side of the Deep Creeks. The lower part is less twisty than Indian Farm Creek and that lets you get bigger and better views of the granite country. Like Indian Farm, it's trail-less and overgrown, and investigating it is an exercise in bushwhacking and scrambling. It's absolutely remarkable though, with huge granite slabs and serrated ridges and massive towers.

To get there from the CCC campground, start by going south 3.4 mi on the well-graded Snake Valley Road. Turn west (right) on a very minor side road that runs above Red Cedar Creek on the north side. At 1.5 mi from the Snake Valley Road, the track makes a hard turn to the north (right) to get around the head of a drainage, and joins the bench road. At 1.8 mi, go west (left) at an intersection, and head into the mouth of the canyon. The road gets rougher and rougher, and eventually peters out at a small parking area at 2.9 mi.

The Route

It's been a while since I've been to Red Cedar, but my recollection is that a use trail starts off from the parking lot and soon disappears in the boulders and slabs.

If you stay close to the stream, there's more bushwhacking, but you get up-close views of huge trees and huger cliffs.

In 2009, we started out on the slope on the north (right) side of the stream and picked our way between the boulders and slabs. There were some very fun little routes through the piles of boulders.

The views are just crazy beautiful. The route-finding can be difficult, but it's a blast.

On the way down we stayed closer to the stream. We found a house-sized boulder that bridges the creek. Amazingly, there is a walkable tunnel under the boulder.

I won't provide a map because it would be useless, even if I remembered all of the twists and turns on our route. Explore and have fun!