One hike that was recommended to us by the campground owner was 'go to mile marker 292' which is the Clear Creek Trail. We were not sure the rating of the hike and waited until the holiday weekend was over to do it. Today was beautiful 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Waited until it got warm enough, last night's temperature had gotten down to 25 and had heavy frost on the windows this morning. Yes, it is cold at night! We had both heaters going, both of us wrapped up in quilts, both cats laying on top of me and I had covered them up to keep them warm. But, this will end as soon as we move south in a couple of days.
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| This morning at 7:53am (was 25 when first awoke) |
The first thing we saw at the trail head was a log with water running along it. Pretty cool - I am sure someone did that as a gimmick, but still neat. Started up our walk, was flat for the first 100 yards or so then started to climb steadily. The trail meandered back and forth over Clear Creek, small bridges built so you can cross and keep going.
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| Log with water running through the top of it |
The campground owner told us there are a number of waterfalls but he had only gone to the first one, can't miss it, have to climb over a huge rock formation and then keep going for the rest. We got to that spot, looked at the steepness of climbing over and could not figure out where the trail went next. So, we opted to stop there, rested, and had a nice return walk back down.
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| Found the rock wall - not sure where trail goes after it |
The altitude difference was 1000 feet from our start, kicked our butt on the hike up but was very pleasant coming down. The sound of the water burbling over rocks, hearing birds cheeping, I did not see a snake and kicked it, thankfully it was okay and slithered off. Did not see bears even though we carried on a conversation to make noise and Dave was carrying bear spray.
Beautiful foliage of the aspens at the height of their gold autumn color, quaking in the breeze. The smell of the pine, seeing the evidence of how fast the water flows down and saw log jams. Just a beautiful walk. Afterward I googled the walk and it was rated strenuous, I guess if you walked the entire 4 miles, we may have done 1 1/2 miles. Can see why this trail is so popular.
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| Aspens shimmering through the pines |
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| We were in a canyon with high rock walls all around us |
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