Nolan Creek
It was still pretty early on a beautiful, clear day when we came back from Fulford Cave and started up Nolan Creek. There are a few trails in the area, and we were going to get to as many of them as possible. The trail started out as a rocky climb, and it looked like we were headed up even higher.
Yeoman Park and East Brush Creek are in a valley between Adam Mountain and Mount Eve on one side and New York Mountain on the other side. New York Mountain is much taller, but Adam Mountain was dominating our weekend. It had a grove of aspen trees at the top of it, and we could see them from most of our trails. The aspen trees were more yellow than they were the day before, and it was cool to watch summer give way to fall. Still, most of the aspens were still green.
When we got to Nolan Creek and the crossing there, we skipped the side trip to Fulford. We figured we'd get back to it, though we never did. We passed the Old Fulford Trail and kept heading up the mountain.
Porphyry Mountain looked interesting, at a big sign in the middle of the woods. We had planned on taking Bellyache Mountain all the way to I-70 later, but when we came to the trailhead it had a sign on it noting it was a dead end. That threw a wrench into our plans, so we talked about it on the way up.
The last set of switchbacks were bumpy but it was a nice climb. We were surprised to find parking for 10th Mountain Huts, and when we researched them later we were really impressed. A future trip? Perhaps!
The trail ended soon after that, at a gate. We hung out there for a bit talking about what to do. We decided to skip Bellyache Mountain and save it for another time. But Porphyry Mountain looked interesting. Would that trail loop us back around to the trail that heads out to I-70? We were off to find out.
