Lost Creek

The Lost Creek Trail is located about 60 miles west southwest of Denver, Colorado in the Pike National Forest. The Lost Creek Wilderness offers some of the wildest and most rugged scenery in Colorado, and it is a geological masterpiece filled with domes, pinnacles, towers, and precariously balanced boulders. The trailhead requires a drive back into the mountains that will shake the most experienced mountain driver. From the Trailhead the trail heads west along Goose Creek but soon heads north into a forest of Aspens and Pine. This is where you realize just how spectacular these giant rock formations are. The JRT's roamed in and out of the miles of giant boulder along the trail. The trail is quite wide and easy to hike. We saw many hiker that day, and the Jack Russell Terriers greeted each and every one. Our destination was the damn site of Lost Creek, the shafthouse. In the 1890's the Denver Water Department attempted to damn the creek, but the water continued to drain through under ground passages. The shafthouse and cabins are reminders of the lost cause to damn the creek.

This is a mysterious and secret place where trees grow out of rocks, and the creek disappears nine times as it snakes its way through the bizarre scenery. Legend has it that the Lost Creek area was home to the last wild buffaloes in the west which were killed by poachers around 1900. We ate lunch at the shafthouse and lingered for several hours before returning the way we came. The return trip was like going a different way even though we returned on the same trail. The bolder formations were the most impressive we've ever seen. The Lost Creek Wilderness area is home to deer, elk, racoon, owls, hawks, and the elusive bobcat. We only saw hawks soaring high in the wind currents. This hike is a little over nine miles to the shafthouse and back, but getting to the trailhead which has a large parking area is the hardest part. This is one hike you can never forget.