Colorado Trail Segment 2/Little Scraggy Peak (South Platte Area, Colorado)

Trip dates: May 11-12, 2019

Caltopo map here

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty much done with snow when May 11 2019 rolled around.  I really wanted to go the Lost Creek Wilderness but snow would be unavoidable around McCurdy Mt. so I was stuck with finding somewhere lower in elevation.  

I ultimately chose Segment 2 of the Colorado Trail because it had a recent wildlife (yes I know I'm weird but I like these places).  Just doing segment 2 would make a fairly easy day (9.18 mi, +2515'/-1098') so I decided to add a bit of segment 3 with a lollipop loop including an extended off-trail segment on  Little Scraggy Peak.

Generally, I was drawn to this area in hopes of seeing the stark beauty left by an old wildfire.  

I started and ended on segment 2 of the Colorado Trail which had suffered the Buffalo Creek Fire in 1996. The rock formations I saw were similar to those in the Lost Creek Wilderness but never quite reached that level of grandeur.

Day 1

I started at South Platte River TH and headed west.  

There were a lot of clouds so these pictures didn't turn out very well (white background saturating the camera etc). It's too bad as these pieces of granite were really quite striking.

This early section reminded me a lot of "the wastleand" they were always talking about in the movie "The Road Warrior"

It got a little greener around Rayleigh Peak.  I'd definitely recommend walking on the forest service roads instead of the actual Colorado Trail in this part. There are very expansive views from the road that you would never know were there from the Trail.  

Looking SW towards Raleigh Peak

Little Scraggy Peak (left) and Green Mt (right, in the clouds)

Day 2

This is the first time since October it's been warm enough to have a cold breakfast (at least for the places I chose to go). It's just powdered milk, protein powder and granola. I just add water through the filter until it becomes soupy.

Thunder Butte (foreground, left) and Pikes Peak in the distance (right). Thunder Butte looks like a fun mountain and as far as I can tell has no trails.

Typical terrain in the off-trail section up to Little Scraggy Peak

Summit register on top of Little Scraggy Peak. It's more fun if you have adventures all year!

Just north of the summit of Little Scraggy Peak

The brush got pretty thick on the north side of Little Scraggy.

I didn't expect car sized talus

This got a bit complicated