Cascade Creek
From the junction of the through-trail and spur to Saxon Mountain we continued about 400 feet to a small area with multi-junctions and a few signs. We took the rightmost turns toward Griffith Mountain. This trail is about a mile long, and after a steep descent joins the main trail in the valley of Cascade Creek.
We took a right on the trail and followed it about one mile to an old mine site overlooking Georgetown. Shortly after arriving at the overlook, the two ATVs we saw earlier at Saxon Mountain joined us. There is a left turn to a more-used trail a few hundred feet before this overlook, but it now ends in numerous earthen mounds and brush piles under the power line just up the hill about 1/4 mile from the junction. We saw no signs forbidding motorized vehicles, but even hikers would have a time of it continuing up Griffith Mountain on this trail.
We returned down the Cascade Creek trail which alternates between fairly gentle sections and steep areas with loose rocks and dirt. Earlier this summer we did this trail in the uphill direction in a stock vehicle without any trouble. About 1.7 miles down the trail and just before a water crossing is an easy 1.7-mile trail to the left which passes the Molly Bawn mine and connects with the main Larmatine-Saxon trail a mile before it branches off to Ute Creek.
We continued down the main Cascade Creek trail another three miles. This section has a few steep pitches with loose dirt and rocks and some areas with just rocks. It wasn't as formable as I remember it from our first Jeep run in 2002. We meet a jeep coming up the trail in this section but had no problems passing. There were a few Aspen trees with orange leaves and an extensive area where the yellow leaves were already on all of the trees. The road continues through private land holdings and eventually ends at Colorado Highway 103 about 0.6 miles above the Ute Creek trail and 5.3 miles from I-70 in Idaho Springs.
Reports from Other Days: 4
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Cascade Creek. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
