Lost Creek Wilderness

Having arrived in Colorado in late May idiotically because I didn’t know about the bad snow conditions, I found that Lost Creek Wilderness was a popular early season destination. No permits are necessary besides a self-registration less than a mile from the trailhead. The wilderness is — distance-wise — very close to Denver! Some of the trailheads and lookouts are less than 2 hours away, though the trailhead for the Lost Creek Wilderness Loop was a little over 3 hours from Denver.

During the unpaved road portion of the drive, I spotted two moose just chilling by the creek just off the road! Made me really look forward to the other wildlife we might be spotting.

The parking lot was full by the time we arrived late morning, so we parked along the ditch by the entrance, following suit of other cars who, presumably, were also late arrivers. There are pit toilets and campgrounds further in the lot, but the beginning of the trail is right by the parking lot gate.

We decided to cut the main loop into a 20 mile loop instead to make it a 2 day trip for us instead. This meant the trail was a nice steady and slow incline until we got near Bison Peak, where the incline angled up severely.

The slow and steady parts of the trail switches from green canopied forest onto a dusty toned shrubbery with a sprinkle of evergreens type of a vibe.

As soon as you clear the treeline by Bison’s Peak, though, you see the iconic Lost Creek boulders that are massive and grand and interesting.

Unfortunately, 500 feet from the peak, my friend started to puke, and we decided to turn back. We headed down and camped by one of the creeks that we had passed earlier.