Mud Springs Trail

The Mud Springs Trail is in a 1.5 square mile BLM area on the southwest side of Cortez in southwest Colorado. This area includes a side canyon of McElmo Canyon and the parking area is along County Road 21 just west of the Cortez Airport. There is a network of trails in the Mud Springs area, some for vehicles and some for hikers, horse riders, and mountain bikers. In 2010 the area is temporarily closed to vehicles as a new management plan is being developed. The parking area appears to be recently built but there aren’t any other facilities and there isn’t any information on the Travel Information sign.

I followed the hiking trail that branches right off the dirt road about 100 yards from the parking area, The trail passes through a sagebrush area and climbs slightly through scattered Junipers and Pinions toward a canyon rim. This side canyon of McElmo is probably the main feature of the Mud Springs area.

There are a few historic inscriptions on the south facing canyon wall from the 1920s. Further down canyon there is an odd cave. It looks like it was partially excavated and might have been used for storage. In the vicinity of the cave it is possible to climb to the canyon rim. On the rim I found a trail that mountain bikers and horse riders are using. This trail leads along the McElmo Canyon rim and has some good views over County Road G.

The horse and bike trail leads west and merges with the vehicle trails at the head of the side canyon. Some of the old vehicle trails have dead branches over them and there are signs saying the area is closed to open vehicle travel. I walked back down canyon to the trail that leads back to the parking area. My total hike in Mud Springs was about 3:00 hours. There are more trails to find here than I covered. I was the only visitor on a windy late May 70 F degree day.

Big Water Spring Trail

Big Water Spring is located 22 miles north of Bradfield Bridge along Forest Road 504 in the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. The Bradfield Bridge area is a popular boat launch area on the lower Dolores River below the McPhee Dam and Reservoir. The Bradfield Bridge can be accessed from Highway 491 near Pleasant View, Colorado.

Big Water Spring is at the end of the drivable Forest Road and is in an area of wide meadows surrounded by Ponderosa Pines and scattered patches of Aspens. The spring appears to now be in a well box and surrounded by a rail fence. There isn’t any other apparent development in this area. The Canyon of the Dolores River is about 1.5 miles directly west of Big Water Springs and makes a good hiking destination.

A short distance west of Big Water Spring is the Big Water Study Plot. The antique sign says that the plot was established in 1933 and that the plot was grazed in 1944 and 1945. Past the study plot there is a small constructed pond. A horse or cow trail leads west from the pond and can be followed through the forest. After about 0:45 minutes there are views into the wide Dolores River Canyon. Walking through the forest, there are a couple of old roads crossing the trail and perhaps signs of old logging campsites.

This section of the Dolores River Canyon is a little north of Dove Creek, Colorado. There is an old road at the canyon bottom that is good for hiking and biking. This is the part of the canyon that is visible from the publicized overlook that is near Dove Creek.

It is possible to walk north and south along the canyon rim here to get different views. I didn’t go further than the rim, but to the south is Mountain Sheep Point which probably has great canyon views. The north facing slopes here support Ponderosa Pines while the south facing slopes are covered with Pinon Pines and Utah Junipers. There are a couple of ranch houses visible on the western rim. My hike here took about 2:10 hours for about 4 miles on a 56 F degree windy early May day.

Glade Lake Trail

Glade Lake is a 50 acre wetlands area in the western part of San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. From the Bradfield Bridge Recreation Area on the Dolores River it is 14 miles north on Forest Road 504. Glade Lake is clearly visible on the east side of the Forest Road.

On the southwest edge there is the remains of an old corral and there is a fence around the site to exclude cattle that is easy to step through. The surrounding forest is Ponderosa Pines with patches of Aspens. There isn’t as much cattail and bulrush here as I was expecting. 

There is a current multiyear wetlands restoration project that features Glade Lake. The fence that excludes cattle encloses 280 acres around the lake and good vegetation responses have been observed. This project has already received an award from the Forest Service Program Wings Across the Americas, a program focused on birds, bats and butterflies. There are four other wetlands in "The Glade" area that are part of the project.

At the north end of Glade Lake there is what looks like an historic berm with an antique flow control structure, constructed using locally available rocks. It reminded me of the 800 year old water management efforts at Mummy Lake at Mesa Verde National Park.

I spent 0:50 minutes walking completely around the lake clockwise, on a windy 56 F degree early May day. The most common bird I saw was the American Coot, mostly congregating in the center of the lake. Near the edges I saw several Mallards and Northern Shovelers, plus one Eared Grebe and one Canada Goose.

A fight of Yellow Headed Blackbirds passed through and there were groups of Swallows. Around the edges were Killdeers. About 1.5 miles north of Glade Lake the Forest Road crosses the area called “The Glade.” This wide level area between forested hillsides had some flowing water and looks like a good area for hiking and apparently has four wetlands areas associated with it.

Can Do Trail Ancestral Pueblo Ruins

The Can Do Trail leads 0.5 miles from the McPhee Recreation Complex mesa top campground to the Ridge Point Lookout then continues another 0.5 miles down the cliff face to the boat ramp area.

McPhee Reservoir is centered on the Big Bend of the Dolores River in southwest Colorado. I started at the Ridge Point Lookout and descended most of the way, stopping to avoid the mud from the last of the melting snow. 

The area to the right of the boat ramp is the site of the former busy lumber town of McPhee which from 1924 to 1948 was the busiest lumber town in Colorado. The best views on the Can Do Trail are along the segment that descends toward the boat ramp.

The mesa top segment was designed as a no barriers trail and has benches every 300 yards. The trail segment leading to the campground area has a bench that is close to the cliffs. This area of forest is mostly Pinon Pines and Utah Junipers. I noticed that most of the rocks along the trail are rounded, as if this area was once a stream bed. There are small patches of sagebrush interspersed among the forested areas.

Among the highlights of the Can Do Trail is a small Ancestral Pueblo ruins site. This site is in the trail segment between the campground and Ridge Point. There is an interpretive sign indicating that this site has a circular tower and several room blocks and dates from around 970 AD.

The circular tower is clear but the room blocks are mostly unexposed. The sign also says this site was visited by pot hunters before it was studied by archaeologists. I spent about 1:00 hour for about 2 miles on a 60 F degree mid April day.

Dolores River Big Bend Trail

The Dolores River Big Bend Trail starts at the interpretive plaque at the east end of the Dolores Cemetery that is on the north side of the river a little downstream of the town of Dolores in southwest Colorado.  

                

                           

The plaque mentions that in 1776 the Escalante Dominguez Spanish exploration party camped at the meadow site that became the community of Big Bend in 1881. When the narrow gauge railroad arrived in Dolores in 1891, the small but colorful town was abandoned.

In 1926 the logging town of McPhee was established nearby. McPhee was one of the busiest logging towns in Colorado until a disastrous fire in 1948 led it to be abandoned also. In recent years the McPhee Reservoir has flooded both sites, leaving the town of Dolores as the survivor of the early era.

The concrete base of the plaque has several historic artifacts embedded, including horseshoes, large spikes, a large key, an odd wrench and some cover plates. The trail to the mesa top to overlook the old sites starts at the back of the cemetery and climbs toward the very large boulder. At the mesa top are two large grassy fields separated by a side canyon. These two grassy areas are clearly visible from the lookout point at the top of the Anasazi Heritage Center Interpretive Trail high on the south side of the Big Bend.

                            

Arriving at the mesa top the walking is easy along the rim to view the McPhee Reservoir or across the grassy field. The eastern grassy field has more sage brush mixed in with grass than the western field.

                              

At the far end, look for old roads that lead down into the short but deep canyon at up the other side to the western field. The same road also leads higher but dead ends at a private ranch. This small side canyon and the cliffs facing the main river have some alcoves that look like possible ruins sites. I checked some of them, but didn’t see anything. There are good views over the Big Bend area, but only near the canyon rim.

The western grassy field had three rubble mounds that looked like small Indian Ruins sites to me. This seemed to be a favorable area with sunny exposure, wide fields for farming and the Dolores River down below. The moderately large Escalante Pueblo is directly across the river on the high hill and some of the shade structures on the hill top are visible. There is a lone Utah Juniper growing on a rubble mound that also looks like a small ruins site.

The three sites form a triangle and are about 250 yards apart. I didn’t see any pottery near the small sites, but saw quite a few shards on the eastern grassy mesa top where I didn’t see anything that looked like a ruins site. The western mesa also had the remains of an old corral and some sort of an old wheeled trailer.

Continuing west, there is an old road that descends west off the mesa down toward the banks of the reservoir. There is a sagebrush field area at the end of the road, and out toward a point there may also be a ruins site. All these sites are somewhat vague, but there are some small mounds and depressions and some brick shaped stones that don’t appear in other areas. My total hike overlooking the Big Bend area was 3:45 hours on a 55 F mid April day.