Lacks Creek: Beaver Ridge Trail – Round Prairie Trail

Posted on by Lionheart

Lacks Creek Management Area
July 20, 2023
10.43 miles
Beaver Ridge Trail
Round Prairie Trail

It’s nearly an hour’s drive from paved highway 299 to corrugated dirt pack road to 4wd crawl. The parking lot is empty and we have the place to ourselves. The mixed conifer forest has a warm, sweet smell with a hint of smoke that fills the air. The trail connects to a road and climbs steadily before turning off from the road and quickly disappearing. We scramble up and down looking for any hint of trail while finding loads of bear evidence. We finally trace back and find a faint trail that climbs uphill and we follow this to a ridge top road. The road reaches a signed junction and there’s a very loud and ominous crashing noise in the brush just ahead. We quickly follow the sign to Round Prairie and descend steeply to another road junction. There is uncertainty about our route but we turn uphill and follow a road to a shaded creek drainage. We sit and have lunch while discussing our location on the map. We tread north a bit farther but decide to turn around because at this point in the afternoon we should be hiking south back towards the trailhead. Passing the last road junction we descend steeply and manage to find the unmarked and very faint Round Prairie Trail. After pushing through some trees the faint trail emerges and we follow the contour along the side of the mountain. Part trail, part road we hike under oaks and through a small prairie while getting our best view of the day. The trail connects back to our original path and we push back to the trailhead through the heat of the afternoon.
After checking the recorded path for the day, it is apparent to see that in the haste to direct away from the obvious bear crashing through the forest, we took a right turn too early when we should have stayed high on Beaver Ridge.

The Lacks Creek Management Area is 8,673 acres of BLM managed public lands with 7,377 acres lying within the Lacks Creek watershed. The management area is surrounded by large private land timber holdings.