Buck Park Cabin

Buck Park Cabin stands in a meadow at 7,280 feet on Cuddy Mountain, in the Payette National Forest, with dense conifer forest on all sides. The Forest Service calls it “very rustic.” It sleeps three on metal cots. A wood stove serves for both heat and cooking, and a vault toilet stands outside. There is no plumbing, no electricity, and no picnic table. Guests carry in their own water, food, sleeping bags, and firewood, and carry their garbage back out. The Forest Service asks that firewood be gathered near the destination rather than hauled from home, to keep tree-killing pests from spreading. The reservation system also lists the place under the alternate names Cuddy and Cuddy Cabins.

The way in begins at Council. It runs 12 miles northwest on the paved Council-Cuprum Road 002, then 12 miles southwest on Buck Park Road 055, which is gravel and native surface. The last 0.2 mile is Buck Park Spur, a narrow one-way road with large rocks. The Forest Service’s own notices put the rough four-wheel-drive stretch at 15 miles. Both agencies advise high clearance and no trailers, and they reckon the trip at an hour and a half from town.

The cabin complex has a small corral and hitching racks. Riders must bring certified weed-free hay. Motorized and non-motorized trails lead out from the meadow for hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and off-road drivers, and the area draws hunters in season. Small Rush Lake, close by, is fished. Hornet and Lower Hornet reservoirs lie a short distance away.

From July through September the cabin rents through Recreation.gov for $50 a night. Recreation.gov warns that snow makes the road difficult, and that snow becomes more likely after mid-October. From November through June the cabin is first-come, first-served, and no fee is charged. For most of the winter, the only way up the mountain to the stove and the three cots is by snowmobile.