After the initial excitement of the Gold Rush had subsided, overland migration fell off considerably. There are no accounts of emigrants using the Walker River Trail after 1854, but most likely a few took advantage of the direct route into the Southern Mines. When reports of gold discoveries along the Walker River and in other places in Mono County began to reach California later in the decade, the Walker River Trail became a convenient route for miners to access the new diggings. At first it appeared that the gold strikes were hardly worth the trip, but around 1861 discoveries in places such as Aurora, Nevada, brought a stampede of interest in the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
Talk of building a road across the mountains drew support from Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Mariposa, and Tuolumne Counties. Early investigations soon concluded that the old Walker River Trail was not a feasible route for a road. Surveyors looked instead to the route now followed by Highway 108. Work began in the early 1860s and was finally completed in the fall of 1864. Soon afterward the mining strikes in Aurora and the surrounding area played out. The new toll road was hardly used until the fabulous strikes in Bodie around 1879.
The old Walker River Trail was soon forgotten after the last migration of 1854. Erosion swept away most remnants of the trail so that today in most places now traces remain.