Little Walker River

 

Directions

From Bridgeport, California From Highway 395 in Bridgeport, drive north approximately 16 miles to Little Walker Road. Turn left on Little Walker Road (Forest Service Road # 066).

 

Little Walker River - Hoover Wilderness

Little Walker River flowing down out of Burt Canyon

The Little Walker River is located in Mono County, California. The mainstem of the Little Walker River flows for approximately 15 miles in a northerly direction from Ink Rocks in the Hoover Wilderness to the confluence with the West Fork of the Walker River near Sonora Junction.

Little Walker River holds a fair number of brook trout

Most of the Little Walker River is located within the boundaries of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, with the upper reaches in the Hoover Wilderness. The stream flows through a few private parcels in the lower half of the watershed. Forest Service roads provide access along the lower section of the Little Walker. If you wish to explore the upper section you'll want to reach the Burt Canyon Trailhead. Burt Canyon trail parallels the Little Walker River for 6.5 miles up into its headwaters.

This section of the Walker Basin supports a healthy stands of aspens lining the Little Walker in its lower reaches. Along the drier, sun exposed slopes you'll also find some amazing junpier trees (some of the largest I've seen in the Eastern Sierra). I was also surprised to find a remnant as well as an active beaver lodge on the upper section of this river.

Trout Species

The Walker River Basin historically provided an estimated 595 miles of stream habitat (Kling and Mellison 2008) and 49,400 acres of lake habitat for the native Lahontan Cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi). Populations of these salmonids within the watershed were interactive and interconnected, and therefore these metapopulations likely had high genetic diversity and were capable of long-term persistence through adverse conditions.

The Little Walker River is home to a number of rainbow trout

Today you'll find mostly brookies and the ocassion rainbow in the Little Walker. Unfortunately for the Lahontans, these introduced fish have out competed the cutthroat for food and habitat.