Red Cap Lake and Salmon Mountain are two of Humboldt’s premier high-country destinations. Either makes a fine day-hike destination on its own. It used to be possible to link them as a loop but, sadly, the connecting trail is now too overgrown for me to recommend, though an intrepid hiker might still be able to follow the route. Most of the hike is in dense fir and cedar forest, but where it opens up the views are spectacular, extending east to Mt. Shasta and west to the Pacific. Salmon Mountain is the highest point in the county.
Six Rivers National Forest Orleans Ranger District: 530-627-3291
The route from the trailhead to Red Cap Lake received full maintenance late summer 2018.
The route from the trailhead, and the first spur to the lake, were logged out August 2019, and are suitable for hikers and equestrians. Some mildly brushy spots remain.
Past the junction of the first lake spur, the Salmon Summit Trail gets little use. There are down logs and areas of moderate to heavy brush, but the route is passable for hikers. On the slope below the top of Salmon Mountain, the trail route becomes an old road bed for a while. The departure of the trail from the road bed down toward High Spring is extremely faint. Past High Spring, the trail tread soon becomes lost in a 20 acre patch of incinerated forest, now regrowing thickly with small Douglas-fir. However, it is possible to continue descending rather easily along the right side of the ridge through low-growing manzanita, even though there is no distinct trail. The route goes through an increasingly wooded area with some fallen logs, and regains the ridge just above a prominent rock, 15 feet across, perched on the ridge line. From there, a trail becomes apparent descending along the left side of the ridge crest, soon reaching the southern junction with the Red Cap Lake Trail. The route from above High Spring to here has been flagged as of August 2019.
Continuing, the start downhill of the Red Cap Hole Trail is obvious. A good set of switchbacks descends lazily through meadow and open forest, but they get little use and the route is faint. Light maintenance was done August 2019, but a number of down logs remain. The route all the way down to the lake has been flagged as of August 2019. Absent the flagging, the start of the route coming the other direction, up from the lake, would be invisible. Where the trail coming in from the north approaches the main campsite at the edge of the lake, make nearly a 180 degree turn to the left. Climb at a gentle angle across the slope, and the trail should become apparent after 100 or 200 feet. Do not plunge into the brush in the drainage leading straight uphill from the head of the lake. The switchbacks stay considerably north of this drainage.
July 27, 2020, lightning started the “Salmon Fire” on the Trinity N.F., near the top of the watershed of Eightmile Creek, just over the ridge to the east of Red Cap Lake, not far from the summit of Salmon Mtn. A second fire, the “Red Fire,” started somewhere downhill from the Red Cap Lake Tr. The Salmon Fire quickly dropped over ridges into the Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests. It appears that the Salmon Fire quickly burned right over a section of the Salmon Summit Tr. In the aftermath of the fires, expect trails to be harder to follow until maintenance is done.
Currently closed to the public, due to the fire.