Badenaugh Canyon Trail

Dogs Unknown

E-Bikes Allowed

Shuttle via Jones Valley Rd to the top of Babbitt Peak. Also an option for starting at the Rotary Park along Smithneck Creek, cruise up to Boca Loyalton Trail then climb the gravel roads to the lookout and descend down Badenaugh Caynon Trail (approximately 19-mile loop).

At 8,740 feet elevation, Babbitt Peak is one of the tallest peaks in the Sierra Nevada north of Lake Tahoe, featuring an active fire lookout with commanding views of Reno, Truckee and the Sierra Crest. Babbitt Peak also features a long-forgotten trail called Badenaugh Canyon, losing 2,200 vertical feet of elevation in approximately 3 miles off the east side of Babbitt Peak towards Loyalton.

The area around Badenaugh Canyon trail burned back in the early 1990s, and since then the trail has been abandoned and forgotten. But a couple summers ago a hotshot fire crew out of Truckee spent weeks mowing out the completely overgrown trail corridor all the way to the peak!

A lot of the finish work was completed in 2022 by the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, with a final dig day by the Truckee Dirt Union.