Burton Creek State Park

About Burton Creek State Park

This wonderful morning and afternoon excursion should be a crowd puller, but there are no obvious signs. This slightly opaque place remains relatively undiscovered and promises a carefree and cheerful hiking experience.

Please pack a map, as paths and roads can sometimes get confused and there are numerous side routes to this route. They offer a variety of scenic views of the park and a wide range of hiking opportunities for all ages and abilities.

Burton Creek cuts through the park from its northwest to its southwest corner, and two nature reserves have been established along the creek corridor. Burton Creek Natural Preserve is located near the dam highway and Antone Meadows Natural Preserve is located on the other side of a dammed creek just north of the highway. Both parks have a wide variety of hiking trails, some of which are popular with trail users.

Both parks are completely undeveloped, with about six kilometers of dirt roads, and each park consists of about 1,000 hectares of open space.

The main users of the trail system are cross-country skiers, but the Tahoe Nordic Center maintains hiking trails in both parks in winter. The walks are improvised and you can hike from one end of Burton Creek State Park to the other. Numbers hanging on the intersections in the labyrinth of streets facilitate orientation and the walk is improvised.

Look for roadside numbers in front of Burton Creek State Park and Tahoe Nordic Center in the parking lot.

The park has two entrances into Tahoe City, but the entrance on Bunker Drive has no parking and the entrances at Tamarack Lodge pose access and parking problems. The best way to hike is in Burton Creek and surrounding meadows, and a section of the new Tahoe Rim Trail runs through the western part of the park.