Rock Creek
We ran three trails, and all of them were near Allenspark. We started with Rock Creek. The combination of trails was a fun one, as the trails are close to each other and quite different from each other. We'd recommend this combo for a nice day of varied wheeling. If you start at Rock Creek, then do Bright Trail, and then finish with Ironclads you work your way back toward the town of Lyons.
Rock Creek is a fun trail. There were just four Jeeps in our group so we made good time. Chad had some friends with him who were all from St. Louis and visiting Colorado.
We took the southern entrance onto Highway 7 and stopped at Crystal Springs to fill up water bottles. It is on the west side of the highway, where there is a parking lot across the way with plenty of room for several jeeps.
Continuing north a short way on the road we found Ski Road, but the sign is much easier to see coming in from the north. We took it very slowly through the residential area. The road twists a bit but the main road is pretty easy to see. Once we got out of the residential area we aired down and disconnected sway bars. We expected a pretty mild trail, so Mike and Chad kept their tires pretty full of air at that point. That changed once we got deeper into the trail!
We found the first turnoff to the right where we think the entrance to the old ski area was, but we saw no trace of the old slopes. The first section was pretty smooth with lots of campers, dogs and kids. We saw a lot of good campsites. The creek is nice along here.
As we climbed up farther, the campsites got more sparse and there were a lot fewer people. The trail got steeper and bumpier. We were the only ones on the trail on the way up.
We spotted some isolated campsites up near the end of the trail that looked like good spots to come back to visit. The site at the end was pretty big and well above the creek. It wasn't particularly scenic as it was in the trees, but it was a nice spot to hang out. Because the trail was rockier than expected, Chad and Mike aired down more at the top to smooth out the ride back down.
Heading back down we met up with two vehicles that must have come out of one off the cutoffs along the trail. They looked like they were looking for a campsite. We passed them and finished the trail. Then we headed down the road to Bright Trail.
Reports from Other Days: 3
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