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| West Fork   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 38.84060°N / 105.0439°W Route Type: Hike, Scramble Time Required: A long day Difficulty: Class I & II
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| Page By: mmoerk Created/Edited: Jun 8, 2004 / Jun 8, 2004 Object ID: 161180 Hits: 2478 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Summary
Climb Pikes Peak on the route less travelled! West Fork Trail does not see much traffic and you can easily find solitude along this route even in the summer. Beautiful views abound.
Get a very early start as the round trip is about 17 miles. You will want to be back below the trees by early afternoon to avoid summer thunderstorms.
Quick Facts
Trailhead Elevation: 9,950'
Total Climbing: about 4,300'
Distance: 8.5 miles (one-way)
Essential Map: Colorado Springs Pikes Peak 75k Trail & Recreation Map, 2nd edition (Cartography by Kent Schulte). www.skyterrain.com.
USGS Quad Map: Pikes Peak (recommended... or use Topo! software to print your own map. www.topo.com.)
Approach
To get to the trailhead, drive south on Highway 67 from Divide. A few miles before Cripple Creek, the highway makes a sharp right and intersects with County Highway 81. Turn onto Highway 81... the parking lot is just a few feet past the intersection. There is a sign with a map of the scenic roads around Cripple Creek. Park here.
Cross the street and climb over an old ramp to get onto the other side of the fence.
Route Description
Start hiking east on the dirt road. This is private property but is shown on a recent map as an access trail to the National Forest. Respect private property and stay on the road for this short section.
After about one-half mile the dirt road curves to the north. Instead of following the road, hike straight up the slope on a wide former road (this is to the left of the hydro scar). This short grunt takes you to 10,200'. At the top of this hill the route is now a dirt road, and you may see campers parked along the way.
About 0.75 miles from the trailhead you will see a sign for the Timberline Fishing Club. The road forks here but both forks end up in the same place. I chose to go straight here.
About one mile from the trailhead you will reach the first reservoir (labeled "Cripple Creek #2" on map) . Visit the reservoir by going right, or bypass it by going left. The dirt road continues through the Fishing Club, and you will pass several camp sites. Continue uphill to the 2nd reservoir ("Cripple Creek #3" on the map). Again, the road will fork at a couple of spots. They all go to the same place, some of them just loop through some of the camp sites. In general, follow the road that looks most travelled. Stop to visit the 2nd reservoir if you'd like, but continue on the road which goes around its northwest side.
When you reach the northeast side of the 2nd reservoir, turn around and enjoy the view of the Sangre De Cristos behind the reservoir. Continue hiking north on what is now a double-track trail and soon becomes singletrack. The trail follows the West Fork Creek and gently climbs through an aspen forest.
At 3.3 miles from the trailhead you will pass the remnants of and old cabin. From here the trail begins to climb more steeply, and you will pass a small waterfall. You will be hiking through aspen, pine, and some thick willows.
The trail can be hard to follow at times as it does not receive much use. Persevere and you will find the trail after it seemingly disappears. It stays pretty close to the stream, you shouldn't be much more than a stone's throw away from the stream. It does not climb up the slope to your left.
After about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, the trail crosses the stream. Before this stream crossing are some good spots to camp if you want to split the climb into 2 days. Cross the stream and climb steeply to a beautiful basin at 11,880'. The trail continues northeast to a saddle at 12,050'. Again, persevere if you lose the trail under some snow fields. At the saddle, the trail continues climbing to the northeast, then makes a short descent to the east before resuming the climb. The trail makes its way east, traversing and climbing a slope until it peters out at about 12,400' (at least that's where I lost it). From here, navigation is relatively simple if you have your topographic map, as the geographical features are huge and not hard to find. Make your way north and east to a plateau to the northeast of a point 13,100'. From here you can see the highway and you are getting close.
Start heading toward the highway. You want to cross the road at about 13,275', to the southeast of point 13,363 ("Little Pike"). You should cross the road at a section where it is heading southwest.
Once you cross the road, follow the same route as the Crags. Basically from here you can easily find the climbers' trail (look for big cairns) and scramble up to the summit.
Essential Gear
In the summer, prepare for changing weather... expect it to get cold and rainy or snowy.
You may want to bring a water filter. You can filter at the stream crossing and just carry enough to reach the summit. In the summer the Summit House will be open unless there is extreme weather, and you can buy food and drink up there (or fill your water bottles for free). Bring money!
Early in the season, an ice axe and crampons might be useful. There are some steep slopes where they might come in handy if snow covered. I climbed the route in early June (2004) and did not need any snow equipment. In the winter this would be a long ascent indeed.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
Images
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Front Range (CO)
