NORTH TAYLOR CREEK, SANGRE DE CRISTO MOUNTAINS
September 27, 2006
By Tim Briese
Over the past few years I have developed a growing affinity for hiking in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This rugged range offers numerous fine mountain climbs, as well as hikes up valleys to high, pristine lakes, in beautiful wilderness settings. Nearly every valley carved into the east or the west side of this spectacular linear range sports a trail of varying difficulty that one can hike up to explore hidden scenic wonders. I have done several of these, especially on the eastern side of the range, which is closer to my home. I have rarely seen other hikers while exploring these trails.
One of the trails I have done is the North Taylor Creek Trail. One day in late September I drove to Westcliffe early in the morning and headed west on Hermit Road to the base of the Sangres. I proceeded a mile up rough Forest Road 173 and parked at a point where the road intersects the Rainbow Trail, a lengthy trail which runs along the eastern base of the range. The elevation where I parked was about 9400'. The weather was rather stormy-looking today, with dark gray clouds scooting over the mountaintops, driven by a brisk southwest wind. Fall colors were painted upon some of the mountainsides.
My lab Allie and I continued on foot up the old road as it climbed up the valley along North Taylor Creek. A mile later we came to the end of the road and continued on a nice trail up into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The pleasant trail climbed steadily up the valley, passing through fine stands of aspens and dark green fir, and crossing the creek a couple of times. I saw a shower of rain approaching from the west and put on my raincoat for a while as it passed through. I had hoped to perhaps climb Rito Alto Peak (13,794') today, the highest point in the northern half of the range, but conditions did not look too favorable for such an attempt. When I came to a meadow the trail virtually disappeared for a hundred yards or more, but large cairns pointed out the way.
Just as I reached timberline I came around a bend in the valley and reached a basin that held Megan Lake, at about 11,500'. I sat down on a large flat rock and took a break while I gazed up at Rito Alto, directly above the lake to the west. Another shower of rain began to patter down and I concluded that Rito Alto would have to wait for another day. After throwing a couple of sticks in the water for Allie to retrieve I followed a sketchy trail around the east side of the lake and bushwhacked up the drainage to the northwest about a half mile to Jeanne Lake, at 12,100'. At this point the summit of Rito Alto was tantalizingly close, only three-fourths of a mile and 1700 vertical feet away, but I knew it would be foolish to attempt in such unstable weather conditions. I seriously considered, however, climbing to a 13,000' saddle to the northeast between Cloud Peak and Spread Eagle Peak, and then descending into the next drainage to the north and returning down the Lake of the Clouds Trail, thus making a long, grand loop hike today. The cold wind ripping against my jacket and the rainy-looking gray clouds convinced me that this would not be a good idea, either, so I turned around and hiked back down to Megan Lake.
The day was still early and I was not in any particular hurry, so I stopped at an old informal campsite in the trees above Megan Lake and started a fire in a rock fire ring to warm myself while I ate lunch. I sat around for quite a while enjoying the warmth of the fire and listening to the wind roar through the trees around me. Allie curled up and rested nearby. I thought about how wonderful it was to have such places in the wilderness to come and visit.
After this restful stop I packed up and headed back down the scenic valley. The sun came out long enough to cast its dazzling brilliance on a grove of quaking yellow aspens as I sauntered through them. Then another dark cloud quickly moved in from the west and within minutes lightning was cracking all around and rain was pouring down. I was glad that I wasn=t somewhere up above timberline now! I hiked down the trail in the pouring rain for a while. Within a half hour it was over and the sun was soon shining again. The shimmering wet rocks and trees were striking in the golden sunlight.
About 2:30 I returned to my truck, completing the nine mile, 2700' hike in about seven hours. I didn=t see another soul on the hike. I felt fortunate to have such fine wilderness hikes available only a two hour drive away from my home, and I looked forward to coming back for more.
