Off-Trail Goose Creek Loop (Lost Creek Wilderness, Colorado)

Trip date: June 29-30, 2019

Caltopo map here: caltopo.com/m/AK45

It's been a high snow year in Colorado (and elsewhere) so the high country was still snowed in at the end of June.  It looked like it would be another trip to my shoulder season standy: the Lost Creek Wilderness.

I'd managed to do 3/4 of the simplified rectangle that makes up the standard Goose Creek Loop on 2 different previous trips but had never done the leg on the eastern side.  I mapped out an "off-trail" version of this loop that would follow the same basic shape but would stay at higher elevations through most of the Hankins Pass/Lake Park region.  

Day 1

This could be Flatirons sandstone. Everything changed to granite immediately after this.

This ridge dead-ended.

I think the far formation is the one I had to find escape sideways from (just back tracked and walked down)

I don't think I've seen something like this before.

Nearing the top of the no-name pass I'd chosen.

The normal goose-creek loop follows a trail in the valley out of view between the burn-scar and heavy forest in the distance.

Overlooking Lake Park from Lake Park Peak. The Sawatch range in the distance.

A Lake Park Moose.

Day 2

These gravel bars seem to be everywhere it looks like a flat spot on the map (that's not an obvious swamp). They make great camps. I chose a high camp (~11k feet) above an unnamed park/swamp to avoid mosquitos. Just going uphill by ~50 feet was enough to ensure no mosquitoes whatsoever.

Super fun Class 3 slab that paralleled this formation.

The off-trail portions were mostly straightforward and quite pleasant. These are fun forests to wander around in.

More cool gravel bars.

Somewhat tricky descent.

The flat boulder was probably 50 feet across. I got spooked and decided to go a different way.

I barely fit. I had to pull my backpack through afterwards.

The most impressive moss I've ever seen.

More gravel bars before a 90 degree turn.

The last time I was here, this was frozen solid.

From here I followed the trail.  The area around Refrigerator Gulch the trail passes through is spectacular and it was no less exciting to pass through it again after my first visit 1.5 years ago.  I was running out of light so I didn't get many pictures.