Round Trip Distance: 1.7 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 9201 - 9272 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: East Spring Creek No. 4
Fee: none
Attractions: Forest hike
The East Spring Creek No. 4 trail is located in the Plateau Division of the Uncompahgre National Forest near Montrose, Colorado. The trail begins across Divide Road from the lower Rim Trail #116 trailhead. (We are using numbers here because there are more than one Rim trails in the Uncompahgre National Forest and more than one trails named East Spring Creek.) From Divide Road the trail follows a wide route for most of its distance. For this post we followed the trail to where it seemed to meet up with another trail that was marked but may have still been under construction.
To get to the trailhead begin at the intersection of Townsend and Main in downtown Montrose. Head west following the signs for Highway 90. Continue following the Highway 90 signs for about 3.3 miles and turn left onto 6250 Road. After about 2.5 miles 6250 Road transitions to become the Dave Wood Road. Follow the Dave Wood Road for another 15.3 miles and turn right onto the Divide Road. Continue on the Divide Road for 1.3 miles where the sign in this picture will be on the right hand side of the road.
Within site of the trailhead there is a green gate which the trail goes around on the right.
After going around the gate and continuing for about 30 paces there is a split in the trail at a well hidden intersection. Off to the right there is a small mound of rocks. At this point the better trail looks like it goes to the right. You can end up at the same point by taking the right hand fork but route finding is much more challenging.
It only takes a few feet of hiking past the intersection before the trail on the left becomes much more evident.
On the day we were hiking the trail and taking photos for this post we came to a spot where it looked like someone was clearing on tree from the trail afterwhich 3 more have fallen.
The trail bends away from Divide Road as it continues. Soon it reaches a small clearing and seems to come to an end.
On the right side of the clearing you can see where logs have been cut through creating a path. Several trees also have yellow and orange flagging tied to them marking a route.
We continued following the route until we reached another clearing where we could see flagging tied to the trees both to the right and to the left. This appeared to be an intersection so we chose it as the spot to turn around at.
