uncompahgre national forest // ADVENTR.co

Ouray Trails: Silvershield Trail & Oak Creek Trail

San Juan Triangle | Monday – Tuesday, June 23-24, 2025

I wasn’t able to get out hiking on Juneteenth last Thursday like I had hoped since I was trying to figure out what was going on with my Jeep most of last week, so to make up for it I decided to take a day off from work this week and head on down to Ouray to hike a few of the trails closer to town. The weather forecast for Tuesday was looking like the best conditions of the week, so I left after work on Monday and made my way down to Ouray. After a quick stop for dinner in Delta and gas in Montrose, I continued on to the parking lot at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool so I could hike the last segment of the Ouray Perimeter Trail that was not yet built when Diane and I hiked the loop over nine years ago. Although it was a bit warm in Ouray this evening, most of the trail that I hiked this evening was already in the shade and there was a nice breeze.

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Fall Creek: An Overdue Return to the Uncompahgre

Uncompahgre Wilderness | Saturday, June 21, 2025

I can’t believe it’s been almost five years since I last set foot in the Uncompahgre Wilderness, especially since I have always considered it to be one of my favorite Wilderness areas that’s close to home and we used to come here frequently over past Labor Day weekends. I guess I’ve just been too busy concentrating on exploring other areas these past few years. Well, I wanted to change that this summer and get back, so I thought it would be a good idea to go on a short overnight backpacking trip with Diane along Fall Creek since our last visit to that drainage didn’t quite go as planned. Unfortunately, it turned out that we wouldn’t have much better luck this time around either!

Wildcat Trail: Unaweep Divide to the Gill Creek Divide

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Well, this weekend certainly didn’t go as planned. I was supposed to spend the weekend hiking and camping in the La Sal Mountains with my friend Jackson and his family, but after driving up into Beaver Basin on Saturday afternoon I started to have issues with my Jeep that made us reconsider those plans and turn around to head back home instead. Thankfully, before meeting up with Jackson I had gone on a short hike up the Wildcat Trail in Unaweep Canyon- so the entire weekend wasn’t a complete waste. Since I wasn’t going to be meeting up with Jackson until later in the morning on Saturday, I got up early and drove up to the Unaweep Divide so I could get started on the hike just after sunrise and finish it before the temperature started to warm up.

San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek & Deep Creek to Down Valley Park | Average CFS: 675
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2025

Late last year Jackson and I decided to take advantage of Mild To Wild’s annual Black Friday sale and booked a trip on the upper San Miguel River for this Sunday with hopes that there would be enough water to run it. Luckily, even though the San Juan Mountains had a pretty poor snow year this winter, there was still enough water to raft the San Miguel at this time, so we planned to head down on Saturday morning to float through San Miguel Canyon from Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek in our inflatable kayaks the day before. A few years back Jackson and I had floated through Norwood Canyon just downstream from here and we were looking forward to checking out these other sections of the upper San Miguel River this weekend.

Lake Hope via the Lake Fork of the San Miguel River

Saturday & Sunday, September 14-15, 2024

This weekend Diane and I headed up into the San Juan Mountains so we could spend an easy and relaxing overnight camping trip together since we aren’t going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next couple of weeks. We slept in later than usual on Saturday morning before leaving home and then made our way over the Dallas Divide and past Telluride to just shy of Lizard Head Pass where we found a very nice campsite right next to Priest Lake. After setting up camp we continued up the Lake Fork to the trailhead for the Hope Lake Trail, which we planned to hike this afternoon since there were no storms predicted at all for today. This is a hike we’ve been meaning to do ever since we first tried hiking to Lake Hope seven years ago from the South Fork of Mineral Creek on the other side of the pass, but that time we were stopped by a snow drift and had to turn around. We were looking forward to finally making it up to the lake this afternoon!

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Tag: uncompahgre national forest

Ouray Trails: Silvershield Trail & Oak Creek Trail

Fall Creek: An Overdue Return to the Uncompahgre

Wildcat Trail: Unaweep Divide to the Gill Creek Divide

San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

Lake Hope via the Lake Fork of the San Miguel River