Big Creek Lake, Routt National Forest, CO June 9, 2007

Posted July 17, 2007

On Saturday, June 9, 2007, I headed towards the Zirkels. This is a section west of North Park (Walden) Colorado that I will probably spend a major part of this summer exploring. Actually, probably many summers : ) Since it was still early yet, with the snow too deep for hiking in the high country, I planned on doing a little checking up on the trail heads around Big Creek Lake. Just for reference, the photo above is a pano of Big Creek Lake from photos I took after I was done with my hike and after the “breeze” had lessened.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. The photos in the gallery are a quantum leap in size and quality compared to the little teaser photos found here.
In addition, you can use this link to view a topo map of Big Creek Lake. A Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

Here is a photo of Big Creek Lake when I first arrived and it was a little windy.

But, let’s start at the beginning. As it turned out, just driving there and back (on the Routt National Forest service roads), was an extremely pleasant and pretty part of the day. I reached Big Creek Lake by heading north from Fort Collins, CO to Laramie, WY (awesome place : ), and then west on Hwy 230 to Cowdrey, CO. At Cowdrey, instead of continuing south to Walden (even more awesome than Laramie and about another 10 miles from Cowdrey), I pointed my truck (here after referred to as “big blue”), west on, I believe, county road 6W. This actually stayed paved for around 5 miles or so before turning into a very (mostly) well maintained gravel road.

This route treated me to some good views of the Zirkels that were still covered in snow.

Taking a look back east I was able to see the rolling mountains north of the Rawah Wilderness area; including the infamous “sand dunes”. Fairly cool place if you like hopping across the dunes in a buggy or ATV.

Zoom in a little on the “dunes”.

Eventually, you get out of the “desert” (as some people call the arid, treeless sections of North Park : ) and into the upper meadows and forests. This shows the area that you enter right before getting to the turn off on 6A that takes you south to Big Creek Lake. If you did not take the turn off, the road (6W) continues on to Hog Park (which was the trip I made following this one).

This view is from the junction where you turn off to go to Big Creek Lake. The valley you travel through is just as pretty as this picture would seem to indicate. But, be a little cautious on traveling the road as it is pretty much a single lane road (a sign points out this little detail right as you enter the mountain valley where the trees start). So, while it is well maintained, the road is narrow and windy. Take it slow and be prepared to use one of the many pull offs to let someone else pass if necessary. That said, I saw very little traffic. Two or three vehicles, maybe, on the way to the lake.

Here is a photo sans the road. Geeeorgeous place. You may notice a little “reddish/brownish” tinge of color to the forests in the photo. That’s because there is (for whatever reason) a lot of beetle killed trees.
“……..The number of Colorado lodgepole pines killed by bark beetles jumped nearly fivefold in 2006 as the explosive, decade-long bug epidemic continued to gain steam. About 4.8 million lodgepoles were killed this year, up from about 1 million trees last year, U.S. Forest Service entomologists say.
The lodgepole acreage under attack by mountain pine beetles jumped about 50 percent this year to 644,840 acres, up from 430,526 acres last year.
Ground zero is north-central Colorado’s mountain forests.
Bark beetles are expected to kill nearly all the large lodgepoles there, and it will take a century for a mature forest to return, said research silviculturist Wayne Shepperd of the U.S. Forest Service.
……….”
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5202384,00.html

Anyway, it still looks pretty. Just be careful with fire.

When I got to Big Creek Lake, it was a tad “breezy”. As the whitecaps on the lake indicate.

Also, I found that I was a week early and some of the roads were still closed. No big deal. I parked the truck and headed out for a hike.

There are trails everywhere around Big Creek Lake. I could have just hiked around the lake itself which would have been 3-4 miles long (I think). But, I decided to hike along a forest service road to get to a trailhead I was interested in hiking sometime. Turned out to be a good choice. Got some great views along the road (zoomed).

And, ended up getting to a trailhead that I “think” was the one I wanted. The sign did not give the name of the trail, and there was no parking lot, but I did not see any other “trail”, so assumed this was the one.

However, I was undecided about just what to do. On the one hand, the trail looked really nice and I wanted to hike a ways up it just to get a “feel” for it. But………….. how could I resist not walking down the road ………..just……. a…… little……. further. It just pulled me : )

And, turned out to be the thing to do. Because right down the road it ran through a meadow that provided some stupendous views. I spent an hour on this road just enjoying the perfect day. Neither saw nor heard another person.

Every direction I looked it was nice.

Very nice.

Eventually I had to make a decision. Get back to the truck before dark or after dark? Hmmmmm. Tough decision. I had to think about it for a few minutes.

So, I decided to head back to the trail to do a little bit of real hiking and get back to the truck before dark. As I started down the trail, I wondered just where I was headed. I’d been here before. Sometime. Ah yes. The Old Forest in Middle Earth.

And, as can be seen here, not much traffic lately.

But, I did find that the trail passed very close by to beaver ponds and meadows (full of moose sign). Neat place. For some reason, there were not any mosquitoes here (but, I did run into a few later in the evening).

Anyway, I had to force myself to stop hiking up the trail and head back to big blue. But it wasn’t easy.

Had a very pleasant hike back up the road. While walking along I try and keep an eye out for what’s going on around me. So, I was able to spot this animal who was also keeping an eye out for things going on around her.

We played tag for a little while.

But, she finally got tired of the game and took off.

I spotted a lake through the trees and decided to got check it out (look for feeding moose, wolves, lions, etc.). There was no trail to it, but close enough to the road that I felt I could find my way back out again : )

Did not see any moose, but it was nice enough that I just sat down and rested for a few minutes enjoying the “karma” of the area.

Little bit of a zoom to pull in the mountains.

The rest of the way down the road was very enjoyable as the late afternoon sun started playing with the clouds (or, maybe it was the other way around).

A quick photo of big blue in the extremely busy parking area. There were a lot of downed trees along the road that were being cut up into firewood for the campgrounds ($10 a night and well worth it). You can see a little of that at the bottom of the photo.

And, a parting photo of the lake and a couple of fisherman.

I believe there is another campground at the other end of the lake. Also, there is a trailhead at the other end of the lake (or, you could start hiking from this end of the lake) that you can hike to an “upper” Big Creek Lake (about a 2 mile hike, I think). Lots of other potential camping (this is all national forest, after all) and trails in the area. There were many places along the road to Big Creek Lake that you could pull off and camp (if you did not want to pay the $10 per night fee). There is a $5 “day use” fee which I gladly paid. But, if you so desired (and no one would care), you could just park your vehicle right before entering the lake area and walk a hundred yards to the lake. In addition, the forest service road that I walked along was due to be opened the following weekend, so you could just drive up that road and skip the day use fee. All that said, I feel inclined to pay the fees if at all possible and support the efforts of the forest service to keep these areas cleaned up, etc. (Yeah, I could make an argument about our taxes already should be enough for that, but, that’s not the Forest Service’s fault : )

Many times, my description of a trip (hike) will stop once I get to the end of the trail. But, sometimes, such as this trip, the scenery on the drive back is so good that I expend another hour or more stopping and taking pictures of the country. Which is one reason (among others : ) that I probably do better alone by myself on trips than with others (“….what? ANOTHER picture?……….”)

Anyway, here is what I saw on the way back down the forest access road.

Looking back up the Big Creek river (stream?) towards Big Creek Lake area.

A little further down the road, yet another view up Big Creek. I have to say, this photo actually comes close to capturing the beauty of the moment.

Further down the road, you enter BLM and private ranching lands. Looking south.

Shadows stretching.

Independence pass area.

Small wrinkles and big wrinkles on the earth.

Plenty of room to run.

So, was it worth the 3 hour drive to get here? Uh, I guess I could say “no” and hope that keeps people away from “my” special place. But, I won’t do that. Definitely worth the time and effort.

– Geoff Weatherford