Denny Creek Trail

Tags: Colorado, Denny Creek, hiking

Date: September 16, 2020

On our second day of hiking, we went higher into the mountains to Denny Creek. The Denny Creek Trail starts at 3,300 meters of elevation. The parking lot had some piles of snow, which was unusual for us, having been in Mexico for six months:

About a week before we got to Colorado, there had been a cold spell with a fair bit of snow in the mountains. By the time we arrived it was back to 30 Celsius in Denver and a bit colder in the mountains due to the higher altitude, but still warm.

This trail is in the so-called 'Collegiate Range' of mountains. In it, many of the peak are named for college towns including Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Oxford. Here is the path leading up the mountain through the aspen trees:

This is Denny Creek coming down through the valley:

The trails in Colorado are generally easy to follow with excellent signs:

The trail head at Denny Creek is mostly used by people wanting to climb Mount Yale which is 4,328 meters high. It was still a little early in our trip to try that, so we opted for going to Brown's Pass and Hartenstein Lake instead.

Getting higher on the mountain:

Finally, we reached Brown's Pass at 3,660 meters of elevation:

The pass is above the tree line which can clearly be seen in the mountains in the distance above.

Heading back down, the ground is covered in small plants, maybe lingonberries:

We had some streams to pass on the way, but rocks or logs had always been placed to help the crossings:

After Brown's Pass, we headed down and over to the lake:

You can see a lot of fallen trees in the lake from a big avalanche. This is the slope above the lake:

The mountains of Colorado are full of life. Here is a pine squirrel, more specifically an american red squirrel:

Coming down the mountain, we saw more aspen trees: