Aspen Loop Trail

The Aspen Loop Trail is a 40 mile route in the San Juan National Forest near Mancos in southwest Colorado. For a hiker the easy access is at the Transfer Campground, a hub for trails in the West Mancos River area.

I started at the parking area just outside the Transfer Campground entrance but you can drive an additional mile along Forest Road 565 to the official ATV Trailhead. The Aspen Loop was developed mostly for ATVs, but is also open to mountain bikes, horses, hikers, everything but full sized vehicles.

The route is a narrow forest road that starts east along the north rim of the West Mancos Canyon. The walking is easy on the relatively smooth surface. There is a parallel West Mancos hiking trail that descends into the canyon and follows close to the stream. Most of the two trails, above and below, pass through thick Aspen forest.

There are a few places where there are views across the West Mancos Canyon but mostly the views are blocked by forest. In early June there are many wildflowers in bloom, blue and yellow Lupines, Larkspurs, and Irises stand out. I saw a few bear tracks in the dusty parts of the trail but no bear sightings. There are two creeks along the segment I hiked. In the moist creek areas some spruce trees appear.

From the Transfer Campground I walked about 3.7 miles to a meadow that is part of the area called Beef Pasture. Climbing up to the top of the meadow, there are some views toward Mt. Hesperus and the LaPlata Mountains. The elevation change from Transfer to the Beef Pasture area is about 870 feet up. My total hike took 3:30 hours for about 7.5 miles on a 65 F degree early June day.

(There is an unmarked side trail along this segment that leads to the abandoned mountain town of Golconda. I walked this segment on a return hike from the West Mancos Trail.)

Lost Canyon Exploring

Lost Canyon is a tributary to the Dolores River, making a junction near the town of Dolores in southwest Colorado. The canyon head area is about 17 miles to the east near the Transfer Campground area in the San Juan National Forest. There is a canyon access to the middle part of Lost Canyon north of Joe Moore Reservoir along Forest Road 559.

I accessed the National Forest from the Millwood access road, County Road 40, a north turn from Highway 184. From the small Sellers and McClane Reservoir at the end of County Road 40 it is 2.9 miles to my starting point, an obscure pullover point along Forest Road 559.

At the pullover there is a two track trail that runs northwest through the Ponderosa Pine forest to a canyon rim. The walking is easy up to the rim but there the trail seems to end. I found a way down through the cliffs and continued north to the bottom of Lost Canyon.

At the canyon bottom I was surprised to find an irrigation canal flowing along the south side. The canal had a rough service road that would provide an easy trail but it was on the other side of the waist deep flowing water. I tried to continue downstream along the canyon slope, but the forest was too thick and I turned back. 

I noticed a cow path that went upstream and followed it to see if there was a way to cross the canal. The cow trail followed the slope about 100 feet above the canal. After about 0.3 miles I was ready to give up when I spotted the water control structure that is the beginning of the canal. It provides a convenient bridge across.

I continued west on the maintenance trail for about 1.2 miles to a point where there are some cliffs exposed at the junction with a side canyon. There is a short side road off the canal road that leads down into a meadow at the base of the slope below the cliffs. 

The forest along the canyon bottom appears very lush with some Colorado Blue Spruce, Douglas Firs, and Narrow Leaf Cottonwoods along with the Ponderosa Pines and Aspens. The canal doesn’t capture all of the Lost Canyon flow, some remains in the natural creek. After checking the maps, it appears that this canal provides water to Summit Reservoir.

Climbing the slope above the meadow is similar to the climbs in the Canyons of the Ancients. There isn’t a trail but it can be walked up if you pick your route. The main obstacle is the thickets of scratchy Gambel Oak. I climbed starting at the left end and angling to the right toward the canyon junction point.

On the mesa top it looks like there is a ruins site. There is a large oval of rocks with a smaller room on one end. This is an unusual site compared to the canyon sites further west. The rim location is not unusual, and the water supply below is normal, but the Ponderosa Pine forest is not typical.

There may be other rubble pile structures to find but the area is overgrown with the small oaks and it is both hard to maneuver and hard to see anything. I wanted to explore more under the canyon rim but couldn’t find a painless way to get there.

The views are very good from the rim area. All the local mountains are visible and there is a direct line of sight to Lookout Point at Mesa Verde.

My return hike took 1:50 hours. The slowest part was descending the canyon side back down to the meadow. The walking along the canal road goes fast and the return along the cow path went faster knowing where I was going. The total hike took 4:50 hours on a 70 F degree late May day. This is a moderately hard hike with the climbing and there is some route finding required in the sections without an obvious trail.




 

Chicken Creek Nordic Trails

The Little Bauer Loop Trail and Upper Little Bauer is the 4.2 mile southwest portion of the Chicken Creek Cross Country Ski network of trails. This 32 mile system of trails can be accessed from County Roads 40 and 41 north of Highway 184 between Dolores and Mancos in southwest Colorado. In summer this loop system provides easy hiking and biking in the San Juan National Forest.

I started my hike at the end of County Road 40 in the parking area by the small Sellers and McClane Reservoir. From Highway 184, the turn off is marked as the Millwood National Forest access. I didn’t see a sign identifying the reservoir but there is a sign that says cross country ski parking.

 I started along the road that is marked as Forest Road 236 that starts to the north. The road that bends east after about 150 yards is marked 385D. The 385D road leads east and runs along the north side of Little Bauer Reservoir. In spring the channels carrying water to the reservoirs are flowing with a lot of water.

I detoured around the north side of Sellers Reservoir along a west leading minor ATV trail toward Joe Moore Reservoir. Fishing at Joe Moore Reservoir includes Rainbow Trout, Largemouth Bass, and Green Sunfish. There is a road that follows the east side of Joe Moore Reservoir but it reaches a dead end at private property. 

There may have been a group of Loons diving in the middle of Joe Moore in late May. From Joe Moore I cut back east and returned to the Bauer Trail walking through the open forest. After rejoining the trail I followed it clockwise.

I didn’t realize I was on the Chicken Creek Ski Trail system until I saw the signs at the junction of the Upper Little Bauer Loop and the Rush Connecter. At that point there are trail signs and a map. The route is marked with blue diamonds posted on the trees.

Along the trail segment south there is an open meadow area with a single picnic table and a fire ring. The trail otherwise mostly passes through Ponderosa Pine forest with and understory of Gambel Oak and a few scattered Rocky Mountian Junipers. Snowmelt water from higher elevations flows under and alongside the trails for part of the way. In late May I didn’t see any wildflowers in bloom here.

The southeast corner of the loop passes very close to County Road 41 and then passes along the north side of Little Bauer Reservoir. The overall route is nearly level and the walking is easy and there are a lot of loop options in this area. I spent 2:10 hours on the Upper Little Bauer and Little Bauer loop on an 80 F windy late May day.

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.