Even though I was out yesterday, with the beautiful weather we’ve been having, I wanted to get out somewhere again for a second day. I decided to see what the lower Cripple Creek trail was looking like. This is the best time of year to hike this trail since it has become VERY brushy after the fires of 2020. It used to go thru some magnificent old growth but unfortunately large swaths of that old growth were burned – most of it is 100% killed so it is mostly just a forest of dead trees now. There are a few trees that survived here and there but not too many. With all that new sunlight getting down to the tread now, it has stimulated a LOT of brush growth. Couple that with all the dead trees, and you have what some people call a “log factory” – not good for a hiking trail.

We headed up to the trailhead where the pipeline crosses pipeline road. This was destroyed after the fires when they cut out a large area on either side of the road after the fires – even though the trees were not burned. Thankfully, the beginning of the trail was rebuilt after the roadway logging. Today, the very beginning of the trail was fine except for all the brush, but as soon as you got up to the first switchback, the downed logs started:

They continued up the hill and when you get to the kind of open area between two hills it was littered with green fir boughs (this area did not burn much). We got thru there OK and then got to the rockslides. The first rockslide has a LOT of poison oak in it – it has always been a bit of an issue but it has exploded since the fires. There are areas that are really encroaching on the tread making passage difficult, especially later in the year when the poison oak is more active. This time of year it isn’t too bad since it is mostly dormant.

After the rockfields, we continued up the trail – it isn’t too long before you get to the “grotto” – this is drainage from a creek in the hillside meadow above and before the fires was a neat little area that the trail passed directly below. Since the fires the brush has grown up so much it is difficult to get a good picture of it now:

This is what it looked like prior to the fires – it had lots of moss which is mostly gone now:

Not too far past the grotto is the unique hillside meadow with oak trees around it. This all burned, but the meadow is still pretty intact. There is a LOT of evidence of deer and/or elk going thru this meadow:

After the hillside meadow crossing for a little bit the trail wasn’t too bad – a few spots had kind of given way but it was mostly OK. It was after this – I think it was when we started another series of switchbacks that things got really bad. The brush got worse, and the worst part were the canes with stickers on them – these were abundant in any area with any water at all. A few places the tread had fallen down the hill as well. There was one old creek crossing (which seemed pretty dry) that had incredibly bad brush, including a lot of the canes. I got kind of cut up with that.

Beyond the stickers there was still a lot of downed logs to navigate. It was in this area I was really contemplating turning around. I took a look at the map to see exactly where we were, and we were not too far from the area between the two 130 spur road crossings. I have been there since the fires and I knew that small area had not burned. It was always one of my favorite areas on the trail so I decided to try and keep going.

We fought our way thru one rough area and things got better for a bit but then when the trail enters an old cut, they got a lot worse again. We ran into this huge mess – where is the trail?

We had to walk way around all these downed trees. Soon, we got out of the burn where the trail condition improved dramatically:

Shortly after that we made the first crossing of the 4635-130 spur road (which is all grown up with small trees now) and then got into my favorite area – the area between the two spur road crossings:

It was an incredibly difficult trip to this point, but being able to see this beautiful area made the difficulty worth it. We stopped here for lunch to be able to enjoy this beautiful spot.

After lunch, I thought we’d walk up to the second spur road crossing. North of that point it burned and is just as big of a mess as what we came thru. I didn’t want to go any farther. We looked around a bit and then started back. As we re-entered the unburned area, I thought I’d go over to the knoll south of the road crossing. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but that little knoll does not show up on the topo map. It is very steep – not terribly tall, but it is steeper than 45 degrees in places for sure.

We climbed to the top of the knoll – you can’t see a whole lot due to the trees, but you get a glimpse of Fish Creek Mountain and Whalehead (more on that in a minute).

As we were looking around, I couldn’t help notice this really interesting uproot – the rootball was WAY in the air:

After looking around for a bit, we started back down, but as we were coming down, I saw what looked like a small view spot a little lower. We stopped there on the way down and although it was still a bit blocked, you did get a pretty good view of Whaleahead – you can see the tower:

After checking that viewpoint we started our trip back. The way back wasn’t quite as bad as the way up – mostly because I had done some work on the way up to clear out some of the worst areas a little bit. It was still a difficult trip down, however. We did make pretty good time heading down the trail and soon got back to the truck. We packed up and headed for home.

On the way back down the pipeline road, I noticed something sitting in the ditch next to the road. It was right where the old railroad grade continued on. It was an old gate that used to block this road:

I walked out the “road” just to see why they might have removed that gate. You can’t drive too far, but it appears they removed the gate to install a new power pole right in the middle of the road, not too far from the penstock. You can’t drive any farther than the pole since it is right in the middle of the road. You could only back up from that point. Kind of a weird find, honestly….

After that, we headed home. It was a good day, although incredibly rough day on the trail – I hope this trail can find some friends to give it some love. It is a great wintertime trail and provides access to the higher country a lot earlier than many trails. It would be a real shame to see it disappear.