If you're ever in Colorado looking for a great backpacking trip, this is the one. Located in the Pike National Forest, the Lost Creek Wilderness was created by the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1980. Its only about a two hour drive from Denver and Colorado Springs, and offers around 100 miles of hiking trails. On the right trail, it also offers incredible views of huge granite boulders stacked in ways that makes it look more like a Hollywood movie set than a wilderness area. I've wanted to see this area for awhile now, so last weekend I headed out for a quick backpacking trip.

Back in 2001, Ollie and I went for quick backpacking trip on the west side of this area. While it was fun, we definitely missed the best parts of this wilderness. Last Saturday morning, I met a group of people I connected with through Meetup.com at a local park ride. After a short drive, we were at the trail-head by around 10:30. The weather forecast was good, mid to high seventies and no rain all weekend. The only bad part to the weather on Saturday was that we had wind gusts up to 60 MPH. Regardless, the parking lot at the trail-head was packed. Lots of people out for day hikes and overnight trips. By around 11 am, everyone had their packs on we were ready to head out.

The trail starts with about a quarter mile downhill descent, followed by a stretch of relatively flat hiking. Parts of the Lost Creek Wilderness were burnt during the 2002 Hayman Fire, and the trail starts by walking through a stand of charred pines. It was interesting to see the ground cover growing back, and stands of aspen starting to grow as well. Aspens can grow fast, so in about 10 more years, it should be interesting to see. What used to be a large pine grove could soon be covered in a large aspen stand. With the wind gusts, many of the dead pines were getting blown over, which made this section of the hike a little nerve racking. I saw one tree get blown over, and heard the rifle shot report of two more going. On the hike back out, there were several trees laying over the trail that had not been there on the way in.

After about three quarters of a mile of hiking, you cross the river on the first of two small bridges. This area is called Lost Creek because the river disappears under the large granite boulders a total of 9 times, only to reappear again down stream. The river has two names. Goose Creek when its above ground, and Lost Creek when its below ground. Much of the trail follows Goose Creek, and there are great campsites along both sides of the river. One area, called the Meadows, is about as idyllic a spot you could hope to find. It has a large clearing for tents and kids to play, you hear the sound of the river all day and night, and just upstream is a calm area kids could play in a bit to cool off. There should be some good fishing along there too. We were headed further in though.

About 4 miles up the trail is an area where there are some old cabins. Back in the late 1890's, someone got the bright idea of trying to dam the river while it was underground, thereby making an underground reservoir. The project never worked, and now all that is left are a couple of the old buildings and some pieces of machinery. This is where were headed, as there are a couple of great sites right in the heart of the granite boulders. We made it into camp around 2:30pm, having taken our time for pictures, rest stops, etc. No sense in hurrying when you are in such an inspiring place. Overall, the trail was a relatively easy hike. There was around a total of 500 ft elevation gain, and the trail only had a couple of rocky areas. Otherwise, it was a well maintained trail.

After pitching our tents, we each went about our own chores. I filtered some water from the river and then started to round up some firewood. After a bit, we congregated around the fire ring, each of us making our own dinners on our own time tables. Several of us then took a hike up where the old shaft house used to. This was a great hike that took us up to an amazing boulder field. After looking around for a bit, one the folks in our group managed to find one of the 'secret' passage ways through the rocks. The narrow crevasse leads out to a cliff that opens to a spectacular panoramic view of a boulder strewn valley. There was a group camped out on the ledge. While I wouldn't want to be there during a storm, for the perfect weather forecasted for the weekend, they had a primo spot.

After returning to camp, we all gathered around a terrific campfire. Good thing too, as it got down to 32 degrees that night. At least that was the reading inside my tent, might have been a tad bit colder outside. I had taken my good sleeping bag and pad though, so I had a toasty, excellent night's sleep.

The next morning, we woke up to some of the bluest skies I have ever seen (if you watch the slide show, in the later pictures, that really is how the sky looked. The only thing on the camera lens was a UV filter. No polarizing or other filters at all). Perfect weather (once it warmed up again!), little wind and not a cloud in the sky. After a quick breakfast, some picture taking, and letting our tents dry off in the sun, we struck camp and headed back to the parking lot at our own pace. I made it back with a couple of folks, thanked them for a great first trip of the season, and headed back home to the family.

Overall, this was a great trip. If you needed to pick just one trail and destination, I would highly recommend this trip along the Goose Creek Trail. I'd also be interested in trying the larger, 24 mile loop. Might make a nice fall trip!

Enjoy the pictures! (If you're interested, simply click on one of them to bring up a slideshow)