Bear Creek Hike

For this week's day off, we decided to try out Bear Creek Trail.  It's about an hour's drive south of town, just this side of Red Mountain.  There is a creek to get to see eventually that I think the trail is named after.  This trail should take you to two different mines if you can make it that far.  We passed a family of backpackers and were passed by a number of trail runners along the way.  Seeing as how the trail follows along the edge of a cliff through many parts I can honestly say that I have great respect for the trail runners.  I would never be so sure of my footing that close to the edge of a several hundred foot drop off.  Those people have a stronger stomach than I do and that is the truth.  The trail starts off by crossing a land bridge over the highway and then goes up through a series of switchbacks.  The trail through much of the switchbacks is loose slate chunks that have eroded out of the sides of the mountain interspersed with some hard packed dirt.

 After about a mile or so the switchbacks give way to a trail along the side of a steep cliff.  In many places the trail can be quite narrow and if you are afraid of heights then this is probably not the trail for you.

 

For the most part I tend to have a healthy respect for heights so I was indeed very frightened while I walked along these parts of the trail.  The narrow trail combined with the steep edge and loose gravel made for a little bit of an adrenaline rush at times.

 

We did get our first glimpse of Bear Creek as we rounded the first of the points on the side of the cliff.

Unfortunately the pictures don't really give you a good sense of how far away that stream is from where I was standing.  I would say there was a several hundred foot drop to get down there. 

 

 Ironically the higher up the mountain we hiked, the closer we got to the water.  By the time we had reached our stopping point we had a fairly nice view of the creek.

 

 

There were a couple other nice views along the way.

 

 

 

This shale was literally crumbling out of the side of the mountain as we hike by.  You could jiggle pieces of it loose and many would break apart into thin sheets so you could see between the layers of the rock.

The range of colors you could see here is amazing.

 

On the way back down we had a great view of the valley below where it opens up into the little town of Ouray.  I still find it hard to believe that I can hike to places with views like this. 

 

This trail was quite a challenge for me.  Not because the hiking was difficult (though the switchbacks are a good workout), but because I had to swallow my fear of heights if I wanted to get anywhere on this trail.  I did well for quite a while, but I came to a part of the trail that I just didn't want to cross.  It means that we didn't make it to the mines that lie along this trail, but at this point I am proud of myself for getting as far as I did.  I give full credit for this to my curiosity about what was around the next bend.  Bravery had very little to do with it, since I spent most of my time watching my footing and trying not to look over the cliff's edge just in case I should slip.  I might have gotten farther had I not looked ahead to the next set of tight curves on the lip of a cliff.  Sometimes you just have to know when to say when.