Goose Creek Trail is a 9.4 mile (15.1 km) one-way route in the Lost Creek Wilderness. It is most commonly hiked as part of a popular backpacking loop, as it connects to other trails in the area. Since my friend and I were just out for the day, we only planned to hike about half of the trail.
We began at Goose Creek Trailhead, which is located way at the end of a very long (but well-maintained) dirt road. The road is relatively narrow in spots and there are many blind curves; please don’t be like the assholes who came flying around one such curve and nearly crashed into us. It was terrifying and they were completely unapologetic about it.
Anyway.
The trail begins with a short drop down to Goose Creek, which it crosses on a semi-precarious bridge. At the fork, stay right onto the Goose Creek Trail. This initial portion of the hike travels through the remains of a forest fire, but we soon entered unburned forest.
As the name of the trail might suggest, we roughly paralleled Goose Creek for the entirety of our hike. There were some ups and downs as we meandered along the creek, but overall this was a pretty gentle trail with some nice viewpoints along the way.
Our turnaround point for the day was the old buildings and mining remains at about the 5 mile (8 km) mark. We first came upon old employee houses that were built in the 1890s to support the attempted construction of a dam nearby. The dam was never built and the area was abandoned. The houses are in various states of disrepair. A trail continues behind these buildings and up the hill to two pieces of abandoned mining equipment.
We ate a snack here and then retraced our steps back to the car, stopping at a couple viewpoints we’d bypassed on the way in. These viewpoints aren’t marked, but they are obvious. The Lost Creek Wilderness area isn’t known for the rugged alpine scenery found in so much of Colorado. Instead, you’ll find many rock outcrops scattered through a large stretch of pine forest. The previous times I hiked in this area were in the off-season, so this was my first time seeing it all lush and green.
All in all, this was a great late-spring hike. And by the time we were back to the car, we were tired and a little sore, but also excited for the more challenging high elevation summer hikes that awaited us!
The Important Stuff:
- Getting there: Goose Creek Trailhead is located off Goose Creek Road, a long dirt road southwest of Deckers, Colorado.
- Fees and passes: none.
- Hiking: the roundtrip hike to the mining equipment was 10 miles (16 km) with 1880 feet (573 m) of elevation gain, but the trail continues further and can be combined with other trails to form a multi-day backpacking loop.
- Where to stay: there are many dispersed campsites along Goose Creek Road as well as one established Forest Service Campground, and there are many backpacking sites along the trail as well.
- Other: because so many people backpack in this area, there are a lot of social trails. In some places, it’s easy to get off track; I recommend having a GPS app with you to help with navigation.
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