Horsefly Point

Trail Run on October 17, 2016
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader

Monica I.

Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Roger R.

White 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

Walt S.

Gold 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

It had been a long and fun four days spent largely in the Uncompahgre National Forest. We'd even made a trip to Moab via the Rimrocker Trail. We had a bit of daylight left in our last day, and we decided to make it count. It looked like we could get a good view of the valley housing the town of Norwood from Horsefly Point, and it looked like a relatively short trail near civilization. That met our requirements, so we headed back into Sanborn Park Road again.

We'd started our day on Sanborn Park Road, so it was a bit odd to be heading back in again in the late afternoon. We cruised along the San Miguel River and then up the switchbacks without seeing anyone on their way down. We made a fairly quick trip up to the trailhead near the top of the switchbacks.

Horsefly Point is actually a side trail off of Dead Horse Road, but Dead Horse Road was too long to do in the fading light. We would need to save that one for a different trip. So, Horsefly Point would use part of Dead Horse Road at its start and we'd redo Horsefly Point at a later date to show where it actually starts. It's always a bummer running out of time to do everything we want to do, especially when we're right next to it.

We made the turn to Horsefly Point and started in. We saw a lot of other spurs intersecting with the main one on many of our maps, but the Motor Vehicle Use Map was accurate this time. There was only one path across that part of the mesa. We stopped to look for the old trails at most of them, but they were all long gone. Unfortunately, they all led to what looked like good views of the canyon below us, so we weren't sure if we'd actually find something good at the end.

The farther we went, the more overgrown the trail became. It was never completely overgrown, but we could tell that it didn't see a lot of use. At the last minute, the trail turned away from the big San Miguel Canyon and headed to the smaller Horsefly Creek Canyon instead. That meant that instead of amazing views we found views that were less than inspiring.

It was nice at the end of the trail, but we'd seen so many amazing things all week so we weren't impressed. We hung out for a short while, knowing it was our last adventure for the year. Then we turned around and headed back, still looking for spurs to better views and coming up short.

Even a less-than-stellar trail is better than no trail at all, so we were satisfied. We headed back down Sanborn Park Road and pulled off to a flat spot near the river to air up. It was getting chilly as the sun was going down in the canyon, so we hurried. Then we headed back to town, planning to leave in the morning.

It was a great trip, and we knew we'd be back someday to finish the trails. This is an area of Colorado that needs more attention from the 4x4 community. Hopefully the Rimrocker Trail brings more people to the area. It's a great spot.