Adventure Travel Photography Blog
I’m so glad summer has arrived in Colorado. It was definitely a long winter for the non-skiiers like me who look forward to hiking. While some trails are still snowed in, Danelle, Mike and I found a fun hike to Geneva Mountain with little snow on AllTrails.
GO HIKING …
Several years ago, I hiked Three Mile Creek Trail on a cold October day with my friends Cat and Chas. It had iced the previous evening, so we spent most of our time snapping photos of cool icicles hanging off the bridges and didn’t make it very far.
GO HIKING …
Another day of the long holiday weekend equals another hike! Danelle was game to hike with me on Sunday too, and we decided on Green Mountain Trail in Pike National Forest.
Strangely, we’ve hiked all over this area, including miles of the Colorado Trail, and didn’t know it was here. We were the first to arrive in the dirt parking lot off Forest Road 550 at 8:30 am. The trailhead parking is near Buffalo Creek Campground and has pit toilets.
Being July 4th weekend, the area was loaded with campers, so we weren’t sure how busy the normally lightly trafficked trail would be.
GO HIKING …Wigwam Trail
Location: Lost Creek Wilderness
Fees: Free
Website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/psicc/recarea/?recid=13004, http://www.fomelc.org/lost-creek-trails
Elevation: 8,160-10,170 feet
Distance: 22.6 miles roundtrip
Hours: Best for Spring, Summer, Fall
We were caring for a young German Short-hair Pointer this weekend, so to help him expend some of his energy, we decided to go to a trail that seemed a little less traveled than others in the area. Originally used to drive cattle from Webster Park to Lost Park, the Wigwam Trail heads northwest along Wigwam Creek.
The trail isn’t terribly accessible in the winter months without a high-clearance vehicle. We followed the dirt road sporadically covered in snow in my 4-wheel drive sedan, but it was a little dicey, and we were thankful that it hadn’t snowed for a while. My bumper didn’t fare too well.
Our hike on the trail turned out to be shorter than we had hoped. The granite path crossed the frozen creek a few times before we reached deep snow which was just too hard to maneuver with Dante in hand. He needed some additional leash training and off-leash, he would have long gone!
We made the most of our venture, however, and headed to the Buck Snort Saloon for an interesting atmosphere and quick lunch.
I think we will come back to this trail in the summer as it connect to three other trails (Rolling Creek, Brookside-McCurdy, and Goose Creek) and climbs to granite domes. ETB
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I’m feeling exhilarated and exhausted simultaneously. Segment 4 of the Colorado Trail was simply magnificent! I highly suggest hiking this segment during the fall when the aspens and willows change from green to golden. I know through hikers may not have this luxury, but day hikers shouldn’t miss this part of the trail in the fall.
The trailhead can be found 8 miles from Bailey down County Road 68 in the Pike National Forest. The road changes names to FS-560, but consistently staying to the right at any splits results in arriving at the Rolling Creek Trailhead parking area. A forest service road extends from this parking area 0.3 miles up to another parking area directly across from the trail to the right. Continue reading “The Colorado Trail – Segment 4”
JB and I wanted to hike the first segment of the Colorado Trail (“CT”) which begins in Waterton Canyon and ends 16.8 miles later at the South Platte River Trailhead located near the ghost town South Platte. As such, we took a road trip, each driving 130+ miles!
Our morning began at 6:30 am, where we met at the Woolly Mammoth parking lot. From there we caravanned to the end of Segment 1 to drop off a car so that we’d have transportation upon completing our one way 17 mile adventure. Then we backtracked to Waterton Canyon to begin our hike at 8:45 am.
HAPPY HIKING!As a kid, my parents took me and my two brothers on a hike to the “Narrows”, a place in Pike National Forest on Craig Creek flanked by high boulders with a waterfall that tumbled into a pool. The challenge, however, became getting there. We never made it, as the path tapered off which required us to climb up and over imposing boulders.
Today, Bart Berger said he’d show me another way to the “Narrows” that didn’t require hiking up the creek. I looked forward to the hike all morning. We got started around 9:30, crossing the creek via a fallen log and wading through a marshy area where I soaked my feet before we even started on a logging road that I didn’t even know was on our property.
We followed the logging road up the mountain through the lodge pole pine forest. I’m not sure if there were more trees standing or criss-crossing the ground. I felt like a football player completing a “running through tires” practice drill as we veered off the road in search of a ridge connecting two mountains together.
Bart wanted to keep the higher elevation as to not drop down and ascend again. After traversing the side of the mountain and enjoying the views, we crossed a portion of the ridge, but eventually ended up on another logging road that we climbed up and down, but not before wandering through fields of wildflowers and a lovely aspen grove! We also spotted a rabbit and a nesting grouse.
Once we reached the creek, we had to cross it. Bart succeeded at skipping over the rocks to keep his feet dry. I was too short for that, so I got to soak my feet. Surprisingly, the icy water felt really good. Just as soon as we crossed, we were at the Narrows, towering rock formations on both sides of the creek though we had to climb up and over the rocks to view the waterfall from above. The opposite direction was Windy Peak.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the best view, but I wasn’t climbing down again. We had been ascending for the better part of the last two hours, many times on loose pine needles and no path. We kept our elevation as we continued climbing over two more rock outcroppings.
We felt like we needed to descend soon and found an area that wasn’t too steep so we side-stepped down the mountain. At the creek’s edge, we were greeted by an overgrown mess. We opted to duck through it, brushing branches out of our way. By now, I was dripping blood from every extremity and thinking this would have been right up my alley when I was 20. I’m not quite as extreme now.
Soon we met our match, a rock ledge that required scaling or a creek crossing. Bart opted for rock scaling as his shoes were still dry. I wasn’t too enthusiastic over the choice, but watching him scooch by, I coaxed myself onto the edge, and only had one moment of panic when I felt I might slip off! I wouldn’t have fallen far, but I would have been very wet and ruined my camera (ie photos).
We continued on until we were forced to cross the creek, this time over another fallen tree. Bart wasn’t quite as graceful this time, but we made it, and enjoyed a partially cleared path. Wildflowers and ferns blanketed the area. We also stumbled across an animal skeleton and some funky looking beetles before we finally succumbed to continually crossing the creek.
I think we must have crossed the creek twenty times. Many of the crossings toward the end, when the path was clear, used to have bridges. It would have been nice if they were still there, though we became experts at wading across the slick, wet rocks!
We finally completed a 6.6 mile loop hike in 4.5 hours…yes, it was a bit rough and backcountry. I have the war wounds to prove it! Now I know why we never made it up the creek to the Narrows, it was one heck of hike down the creek.
Just as we arrived back at the houses, my friends Ramona and Mike from Memphis stopped in after their hike. No one can visit Estabrook without going to my favorite place in the world, “The Bear’s Cave”. We followed the path along the creek to the amazing rock formations and decided to continue on to the hanging bridge. This is always my zen hike, so I didn’t mind adding on another three miles to share my happy spots with Mike and Ramona.
Only eating a handful of cherries and goldfish on the trail for the day, I couldn’t get to The Cutthroat Cafe in Bailey fast enough. We inhaled our dinners before heading back to Denver. What a great day of hiking! ETB
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Despite reading the description of the trail and having hiked parts of the Tanglewood trail before, I didn’t realize what I was signing up for today. I don’t know if my legs weren’t fully recovered from the MS150 ride last week or if starting out with a slight headache is what made this 11 mile route with 2,700 feet of elevation gain in four miles so hard. Usually we average about a 25 minute pace uphill…we averaged a 25 minute pace downhill today!!
The first part of the trail was fairly flat, though rocky, and crossed the creek several times. As I mentioned I’ve hiked this part a few times with some folks some Texas at a much slower pace, taking pictures, looking for geocaches, and dragging the ole mutts along. Today, we had more of a mission to make it to the lakes, though I did declare before we set out I wanted to take some photos so we’d be hiking at a slower pace today, but I don’t think I could have gone faster if I tried.
The wild flowers were out in force. They were glorious…wild rose, blue columbine, and all sorts I don’t know the names of, so I got several breathers on the flatter portion of the trail for photo taking. After about three miles, the trail crossed the creek a final time and started switch backing up the mountain beneath the pines. The switchbacks were quite steep and rather strenuous. We saw some brush and came out into an open area excited to be in what we thought was “the meadow” we read about. The problem was the trail continued straight up the side of the mountain with hardly any switchbacks. This is where I really needed the breathers!!
I said to Justin and Kristin, my fellow hardcore hiking friends, “Since when is the definition of a meadow, a steep incline?” Then I realized we hadn’t reached the saddle yet and we weren’t to the meadow…we were still hiking the “so-called switchbacks”. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, or the top of the ridge…a flat meadow!! Here we crossed from the Pike National Forest to the Arapahoe National Forest which was marked by a wooden cairn.
We descended slightly for half a mile to Roosevelt Lakes, two alpine lakes above the tree line where we sat and enjoyed a leisurely lunch, keeping our eyes peeled for mountain goats and also watching the storm that was rolling in. As the wind picked up, we packed up, found the trail, and stayed just ahead of the rain all the way down the mountain. The views were amazing, the flowers beautiful, and the weather….well frankly a little humid for Colorado…haha! Actually, I’ve been wanting to do that full hike for a while now, so I’m glad we pulled it out. I do my first fourteener next week, so it was good practice!
Shelf Lake Trail, Colorado
Two days ago I planned on hiking Shelf Lake Trail, but I was slightly challenged in finding the trailhead, so by the time I came upon it, I scrapped the idea of making the 6.4 mile roundtrip. This morning, 6.4 miles sounded appealing as that was one of the shortest options of the trails in the area and the difficulty level in my hiking book was described as easy despite beginning at an elevation of 9,900 feet and gaining 2,100 feet in 3.2 miles.
The excitement began as soon as I reached the Burning Bear Campground on Guanella Pass Road. I was only a mile from the turn off to the three-mile stretch of dirt road when I caught a glimpse of a mountain lion! I had my eyes peeled for big horn sheep and mountain goats, so I was surprised to see the large tan animal turn from the edge up the road and leap up the hill two beats at a time like a cat versus the three beat canter of a coyote or a dog.
This movement is what made me think it was a mountain lion as I never got a good look at its face. It took about five leaps before it vanished in front of my eyes. It’s amazing how animals slink behind a tree and seem to disappear into a mountainside. I know it was sitting there watching my car…so eerie…but I was glad to be in a vehicle!
I continued on to the turn off for the trail and this time drove directly to the trailhead. The 0.75 miles or so of the trail steadily follows switchbacks up the mountain through the pines, firs and spruce until it reaches the first of five creek crossings. Shortly thereafter, its helpful to have goat-like abilities to traverse a very steep portion of the trail on the edge of the mountain that offers a magnificent view of the valley below.
After scrambling up this area, the trail levels out and wends its way through forest and a rock quarry covered in fluorescent green lichen. Sometimes I wonder how the rocks end up in certain locations. Mountains protruded all around and trails seemed to skirt out in all directions. My guide book advised to maintain elevation if in doubt of which trail to follow, so I did. I wandered through the maze and followed the most traveled trail until I came into an open meadow of tundra and willows.
I felt like I should be a sheep herder in Iceland. I was out in the open wilderness….nothing around but beaver ponds, tundra, and craggy cliffs that a mountain goat had to be climbing on somewhere. I just couldn’t see them in the expansiveness. I felt so alone and free at the same time. The description of the easy hike kept rolling around in my head as I was leaning at a 45 degree angle against the constant twenty-five miles per hour wind that gusted up to forty miles per hour. I wondered, is this hike easy when it isn’t windy because it doesn’t feel easy now!
After about a mile of walking through the open space against the wind, the final 3/4 mile stretch was a series of steep switchbacks that continued above the treeline and ended at Shelf Lake tucked in a high mountain cirque. The lake, which is usually frozen until mid-June, is rated good for cutthroat trout. I clambered around the rocky terrain looking for a protected area where I could eat a quick lunch when I saw something reflecting by the shore. I walked a little further and found someone’s backpack. I couldn’t believe it. I was in the middle of nowhere….didn’t see a soul on the trail…felt like I was a pioneer…or an icelandic sheep herder…and then there were two of us at the lake!
He was fishing. I bounced from rock to rock all the while looking for mountain goats until I reached the angler. They had to be here. Rocks and a water source…where were they!?! Perhaps they were hiding from all the wind. Personally I don’t know why goats and bighorn sheep would want to live in areas like this, except for the view and perhaps to stay away from predators.
The fisherman hadn’t had too much luck. Only a few trout had shown, but I don’t know how he could fly fish in this wind which was virtually circular at the lake. It was his first time on the hike, and he thought it was magnificent as well. The lake, a deep sapphire blue, was gorgeous and tranquil despite the white caps on its shoreline today.
Mr. Angler took one look at my camera and said pointing behind him, “There are some mountain goats up on that ridge.”
“Really”, I responded, “I’ve been looking all over for them and haven’t seen them.”
“I wouldn’t have seen them”, he said, “but they caused a huge rock slide. I counted six.”
So I left the fisherman at his task of catching cutthroat while I scoured the ridge for mountain goats. I finally caught sight of three sunning themselves. They looked like specs in my 270 zoom lens which then really made me feel small in the world’s surroundings. Nature is just so grand! After a short lunch, with the wind at my back, I got blown down the mountain…Another amazing hike. I look forward to taking the Shelf Lake Trail in the summer because my guide-book claims there are several cascading waterfalls and spectacular wildflowers, both of which were gone for the fall.
ETB
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On my way to Buck Gulch Trail, number 772 in Pike National Forest of Colorado’s foothills, I came across a sign “Shooters: Be Considerate. We Live Here. & Been Shot”. Hmmm I thought, I’m going on a hike just two miles away!?! My drive continued past a homemade shooting range in a burn area from the High Meadow Fire that raged out of control in 2000.
Happy Hiking!