North Fork Creek

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 8 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 10,819 - 12,438 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 5 hrs.
Trailhead: North Fork Creek
Fee: none
Attractions: alpine lake

The North Fork Creek trail #1483 is located in the Mount Massive Wilderness Area of the San Isabel National Forest between Aspen and Leadville, Colorado. Traveling up the North Fork drainage the trail provides multiple hiking options. The most popular route leads up to the small but scenic North Fork Creek Lake. From there another trail crosses the Continental Divide into White River National Forest and descending to join the Fryingpan Lakes trail. There is also a route that climbs the west drainage and crosses the divide into the Marten Creek drainage, as well as routes to Deer Mountain Lake and Blue Lake.

Missouri Lakes

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 8.6 miles (pass)
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 10,010 - 12,005 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 5 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Missouri Lakes
Fee: none
Attractions: Alpine lakes

The Missouri Lakes trail is located in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area of the White River National Forest between Minturn and Leadville, Colorado. The moderately heavily trafficked trail is popular with both day hikers and backpackers. With the Missouri Lakes and Fancy Pass trailheads being right beside each other the two trails are often combined to create a loop that should come out to a little less than 9 miles.

Blue Crossing Petroglyphs

GPS planning file and map.

The Blue Crossing Campground Petroglyphs is a site near Alpine, Arizona that we haven't visited yet. You can enter 'Blue Crossing Campground' into your driving app and it should send you south from Alpine on US-191 for 14 miles and then left onto the Red Hill Road for another 12 miles to the campground where you can find the petroglyphs.

Included with this post is the GPS file and map that we plan to use for our first visit. If you don't want to wait for us to get around to it feel free to try the GPS file and map for yourself. With no guarantee, of course, but they most often prove valuable for us.

New York Creek

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 8.4 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 10,069 - 12,308 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 6 hrs.
Trailhead: New York Creek
Fee: none
Attractions: alpine hike, mushrooms, berries

New York Creek is located in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area of the White River National Forest east of Aspen, Colorado. Beginning off of the Lincoln Creek Road, at an elevation just over 10,000 feet, the trail climbs up the New York Creek drainage, through idyllic stands of spruce and fur trees, to the saddle of a ridge that divides the White River and Gunnison National Forests, where the elevation is just under 12,300 feet. Panoramic views and fresh alpine air are the crowning reward for the effort that comes as a result of the more than 2,400 feet of elevation gain.

Anderson/Petroleum Lakes

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 4.8 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 11,194 - 12,306 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 3 hrs.
Trailhead: Petroleum/Anderson
Fee: none
Attractions: Alpine lakes

The Anderson/Petroleum Lakes trail is in the White River National Forest east of Aspen, Colorado. Beginning off of the Lincoln Creek Road, at an elevation already around 11,200 feet, the trail climbs along Anderson Creek for one mile where it reaches Anderson Lake which sits in a scenic basin just above timberline. From there the trail continues up the alpine tundra for another mile to a higher scenic basin where Petroleum Lake sits at an elevation around 12,300 feet.