Is This Rancheria or Crown Valley Trailhead?

[krudler]

Wow Buck - awesome, really awesome

Cant wait to go Tehipite.

By the way, to my original question, I guess the trailhead in the map is Crown Valley, as Rancheria is the one a bit NNE of there at the end of the road on the side of that hill.

[billy the kid]

hi all i was planning on a long backpacking trip in this area and this one looks awesome but i was getting a little confused by all the testimonials. heres my question how hard is this trip i read above someone gave buck foresters route a class 3 but how does the rancheria trail stack up mainly is there any climbing involved and is this trip possible in june or are there creek/river crossings that would be to high. i also just wanted to add i havnt really looked at to many maps of this trail because if there is climbing involved theres no point

[giantbrookie]

hi all i was planning on a long backpacking trip in this area and this one looks awesome but i was getting a little confused by all the testimonials. heres my question how hard is this trip i read above someone gave buck foresters route a class 3 but how does the rancheria trail stack up mainly is there any climbing involved and is this trip possible in june or are there creek/river crossings that would be to high. i also just wanted to add i havnt really looked at to many maps of this trail because if there is climbing involved theres no point

No, you don't have to worry about class 3 or class 3+ unless you are trying to force the trailless canyon of the Middle Fork downstream of Tehipite Valley (this was the source of the comment about class 3). The trail going out of Rancheria is just that--a trail, so nothing remotely approaching class 3 is required to hike the trail (as is the case for any official trail).

[Buck Forester]

Hey billy the kid, if you're looking to get to Tehipite Valley this summer via the Rancheria Trailhead, it's an easy, relatively flat walk for the first 15 miles through lovely forests and meadows. The creek crossings on a couple of the creeks in early season (early-mid June on a year like this year) might be exciting and require some planning, but with common sense they are totally doable. The drop down into Tehipite Valley, although trailed, is very overgrown with brush, quite steep for a trail, covered in pine needles and oak leaves which makes it slippery. Sometimes it's even difficult to follow the trail if you're not paying careful attention even though there's only one way to go... down. If you're doing it all in one day, after the 15 miles to the valley rim you're rather tired, and then the constant downhill pounding on the last steep three miles will make you especially thankful when you reach the valley floor! But watch your step... lotsa rattlesnakes! But you're rewarded with a beautiful and remote canyon, most likely all to yourself. Tehipite Dome is the largest piece of granite in the Sierra (so I've read), even bigger than Half Dome. Once you are in the valley in early summer, you are pretty much stuck on the west side of the river due to the high flows. You could probably swim across in some places but it's a pretty big, cold river down there. Later in the year you can wade across it no problemo. But early in the season it's a pretty exciting ford of Crown Creek in the valley, below Silver Spray Falls, but doable, especially with trekking poles. I love it there.

[DoyleWDonehoo]

Buck, some very nice pictures. Yeah, that walk down the trail into Tahipite is really something: around 4000 feet of drop. The lower part of the trail was a bit eroded for me. I found a "Shorty"-like cabin, what was left of it, there. The Crown was impossible to cross (early season). I actually met a NP Ranger on that trail! Maybe they fixed the trail up some. Tahipite is a very natural state "Yosemite" valley.

[s_kruse]

Regardless of how the trailhead is marked, the red line you show on the topo map follows along side Rancheria Creek and leads to Crown Valley. Elevation gain is more gradual vs. the more northerly trail that climbs the ridge to Three Springs, then goes to Crown Valley.

Just enjoy.