Jenny Creek
We were up in that area of Colorado to check out Jenny Creek. The trail has changed many times over the years, largely do to the erosion from the creek. It was always a good time, driving along the creek bed and popping in and out of the water. But we'd heard it had been completely rerouted out of the water so we needed to remap it and see what the differences were. In the end, we missed the water but still had a good time.
The start of the trail was the same, though we all drove by the bridge and didn't even see where it was. Was it widened or were we not paying attention? Either way, it was uneventful.
One of our favorite places to have lunch has always been the spot just before the creek crossing, though it can be thick with mosquitoes sometimes. That has been closed off, unfortunately, so now you can only park a car or two there. While we sat there, we could see the drastic changes that were made.
The creek crossing itself had not changed, but the other side of the water was completely different. Before, the trail went up to the fun obstacle on the other side while the dead-end spurs went around on the side road. Now, the side road is the trail and the obstacle is closed. It is covered in trees and torn up, never to be used again. We took a minute to sadly look at it, and then headed along the trail.
The "Y" intersections are now marked with good signs pointing the right way, which is nice. We didn't take either of the dead-end spurs. When we got to the new trail, it merged nicely with the old trail but that's where the niceness stopped.
The new trail is over a ridge above the creek, and all of the trees were cut down on both sides of the trail. You wouldn't be able to walk along the sides of the trail as they are thick with branches and cut logs. The trail was fun in spots, with some bumpiness and rocks, but otherwise this isn't a great section of trail. We were glad when it was behind us and we were in the trees.
The old trail used to have a spur that went into this section, and that's where we ended up. You used to be able to pull off the trail in a wide, flat area but it was blocked off by trees. We found places to park and then walked over the trees to set our chairs down for lunch. We were basically right where the old trail used to come in, and that end was very blocked with trees and signs. It was a bit sad.
We weren't sure if the fun, long, rocky hill was in the closed area or not, and we were happy to find out that it was still in the open section. We all had a good time climbing it, and no one had any issues. This makes the trail still worth the trip along Rollins Pass East, in our opinion.
We popped out at Yankee Doodle Lake to find lots of people and cars everywhere. We talked about how often we'd do Jenny Creek now, and admitted that it probably wouldn't be on our list of favorites anymore. Still, it would stay in our rotation, and we hoped the cut-down area would grow in soon.
Reports from Other Days: 7
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Jenny Creek. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
