Fish Creek Trail-Dolores River West Fork

The Fish Creek Trail travels along a major contributor to the Dolores River West Fork in the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado. The trail head access is confusing as the Forest Road passes under an overhead sign that says “Fish Creek Ranch.”

The Forest Road access is about 12 miles north along the West Fork Road from the junction with Highway 145, north of the town of Dolores. Then the Forest Road passes through scenic private property for about 2.5 miles to the trailhead.

The last mile of Forest Road is in the Fish Creek State Wildlife Area and there are fishing access points along the clear running creek. The trail generally leads northeast along the west shoulder of the Fish Creek drainage.

The trail is open to hikers, horses and mountain bikes but probably doesn't get many bike riders. The forest here is mostly Spruce and Firs with Aspens, and there are Ponderosa Pines in a few places.

Near the trail head there is a plaque honoring Phillip Aschbacher, a long time Forest Service Engineer. There is more water management engineering in the forests than is immediately apparent. Some of this work can be seen near the creek across from the trail head.

After about 0:30 minutes of hiking there is a crossing of Little Fish Creek. Otherwise, the trail stays well away from the water, with frequent views but always from an elevated distance.

A major feature of the lower part of the Fish Creek Trail is a very large scree slope. I arrived the scree after about 1:30 hours of hiking and it takes ten or fifteen minutes to cross.

From the trail, I couldn't see any cliffs that were producing the scree, but these cliffs might be visible from the nearby Willow Divide OHV Trail that is above the east side of the Fish Creek Trail. I listened for the rabbit relative pikas that often live in scree slopes but didn't hear or see them.

Beyond and below the scree slopes there are some beaver ponds and some beaver lodges are visible.

In late May, I didn’t see very many wildflowers along the Fish Creek Trail, but there were quite of few of these butterflies flitting among the Irises. I think this is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. I didn’t see any large wildlife but I saw tracks on the trail that I thought were elk. Two Mallard ducks were on one of the beaver ponds.

Past the scree slopes the trail has a steep segment. I turned around after 2:00 hours and about 4 miles. I think the trail continues for another 4 miles past where I stopped. The return hike took 1:50 hours for a total hike of 3:50 hours for about 8 miles. It was a 65 F degree sunny late May day. I carried and drank 3 liters of water.

Geyser Springs Trail

The Geyser Springs Trail is a 1.25 mile each way trip to the only true geyser in Colorado. The trail head is about 23 miles north along the West Fork of the Dolores River Road from the junction with Highway 145 which is about 15 miles north of the town of Dolores. There is also access coming south from Telluride along the Dunton Road south of Lizard Head Pass

The trail head parking area appears to be newly constructed for 2009. The trail immediately crosses the West Fork of the Dolores using some large placed stones. As these stones might be underwater during the spring runoff, late summer and fall are the best times to visit here. The trail head area is about 2 miles south of the Dunton Hot Springs site.

When driving past Dunton, it appears to be a well preserved privately owned mining ghost town. It has a low key appearance but is actually a somewhat fancy resort. Among the attractions of Dunton are the hot springs from the same underground thermal source as Geyser Springs.

The trail climbs from about 8500 feet to 9100 feet through aspen and spruce forest with a few views across the canyon. About 100 yards before the geyser there is a small sign that advises foot travel only into the sensitive geyser area. Well before arriving at the site there are whiffs of sulfur and maybe small puddle hot springs along the trail.

The geyser itself is a small pool and looks like the back wall has been constructed. When I arrived there was a boiling appearance. Warm water overflowing the pool drips down a slope into the creek flowing on the backside.

Viewing from the creek side, there is an old inscription that says J Luther 1901. I suppose this is old enough to consider historic and has an interesting story. The Forest Service information on the Geyser says the water is 82.4 F degrees. I dipped my hand in and the turbid water was warm but not hot. I was interested to see if unusual plants would be growing in the warm micro-climate here. There were ferns lining the pool, but they also grow along the creek, so I didn’t detect anything unusual.

I watched the geyser for about 45 minutes. There was good boiling activity as I arrived and it gradually slowed down to more of a simmer, but the water was never calm. About 40 minutes after I arrived the intensity increased again. The water level at the maximum intensity during my visit was about 1 or 1.5 feet higher than at low intensity. There wasn’t any spurting or jets shooting high in the air. Not spectacular but certainly interesting.

It took me about 30 minutes to arrive at the site and 30 minutes back and I lingered and chatted with other hikers for another hour for a 2:00 hour total visit. It was about 65 F degrees in mid August. I carried 1 liter of water but didn’t need to drink until the end of the hike.

Goble Trail

The Goble Trail is a 3.5 mile loop trail that climbs out of the West Fork of the Dolores River Valley up toward Nipple Mountain in the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado.

The trail head is about 10 miles north along paved West Fork forest road 535 and about 22 miles total north of the town of Dolores. There are a lot of trout fishing spots along the road here.

The lower part of the trail climbs along a small creek for about 15 minutes before reaching the loop. The forest along the creek is thick and mixed with Aspens, Engelmann Spruce, Douglas Fir, and Narrow Leaf Cottonwoods.

. This trail appears to get some use by horse riders, probably not very much from mountain bikers.

I took about 0:50 minutes of fairly steep climbing to get to the high point of the trail where the forest opened up into a meadow area and there were views of Nipple Mountain to the west topping out at 9763 feet. There is an old corral up on top along the trail and signs of cattle.

There are also views across the West Fork Valley to Stoner Mesa but no views to the mountains in the nearby Lizard Head Wilderness. The trail is a little confusing in this area as cow trails lead off in different directions. 

There are signs to help keep hikers on the trail but you have to keep an eye out for them and keep in mind that you want to loop back down to the east.

The south loop as I descended is a little more open and drier forest than the north side of the loop. There were ponderosa Pines in the higher area of this route. In mid August 2008 there were a few wildflowers along the trail but nothing spectacular. The lush mix of trees along the creek was more interesting than the flowers. It took about 1:40 hours to walk this loop trail.

Lower Stoner Mesa Trail

The Lower Stoner Mesa Trail starts at the Emerson Trail Head along the West Fork of the Dolores River in the San Juan National Forest in southwest Colorado.

The West Fork enters the Dolores River about 15 miles north of the town of Dolores. This trail is part of a 25 mile loop trail for mountain bikers that includes the paved road.

Dirt bikes and horses can also use this trail. The Emerson Trail Head area used to be a campground, but has been retired for camping for the last 10 years or so.

For hikers, the first part of the hike is along the bank of the West Fork River, then crossing a small bridge. Along the clear running stream are some tall Engelmann Spruce trees.

This is a good aerobic trail, climbing steeply with switchbacks through a mostly Aspen forest. The under story of vegetation is very thick and has a lot of waist high wildflowers. This route is like a narrow alley with chest high vegetation with shady Aspens overhead.

The views through the thick forest are across the narrow West Fork canyon with glimpses of the paved road below and a little up the canyon to the north. After the first 75 percent of the climb, the trail levels out for about 10 minutes. There are scattered Douglas Firs and Gambel Oaks high up.

The trail climbs more than 1200 feet and enters a high meadow area. A short distance across the meadow is a small constructed reservoir.

From the high meadow area there are views to Lone Cone Peak to the north and Mt. Hesperus back to the southeast. The trail continues on through a forested and meadow area.

It took me about 1:20 hours to get to the reservoir and I turned around there. My total hike was 2:30 hours.