Warden Gulch
Warden Gulch is a fun one with a scenic reward at the end, so we were happy we had the time to do it after seeing so much already. Cinnamon Gulch is largely closed, so it freed the time for Warden Gulch. There were lots of people camping near the trailhead on Labor Day Weekend, so we took it easy through the creek crossing at the start. We were soon headed up the long and steep climb.
It's a fun climb, and we were lucky to not find any oncoming traffic on the way up or on the way down. That meant that we made good time and soon found our way to the flatter area at the top of the climb. It was scenic, even with the heavy clouds. It was definitely cooling off, with temperatures in the low 50s.
We got to the top, and had it to ourselves. Matt drove around to the mine at the top, just like he did last time. Monica and Holly stopped at the wide and flat area at the base of the mine, getting out to explore in the chilly wind. Holly found her rear differential leaking, and Matt found the bolts on half of it would move with finger tightening. They pulled out some small wrenches and got it tightened up again. It didn't look like she lost much oil, so all was well.
There is a fun "poser rock" near the top and in the scenery. It's sloped on one end and easy to get a tire onto, so we all took turns on it. Matt was only on it for the fun of it, so he didn't hang out on it for long.
Monica had some testing to do with her new tires, to see how much they hit her fender flares. It was surprising to see that they didn't hit the front flares at all, and barely hit the rear flares. Good news! She had fun posing and then got down off of the rock.
Holly hasn't had many opportunities to pose on rocks with her newish Jeep, so she got out to check things out. It looked awesome, and she did the obligatory shot of her crouched under her front bumper. It was cold, though, so she didn't hang out long.
We worked our way down, and it didn't take long to hit the bottom. We enjoyed some splashing through the creek crossing for the campers there, and then we were out on Peru Creek and headed for Keystone and dinner. It was a great day, but winter was definitely coming.
Reports from Other Days: 2
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Warden Gulch. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
