Busk Creek and Highline looped with the CDT/CT

San Isabel National Forest

Leadville National Fish Hatchery


(map link)

While pondering the mile or so interpretive trail at the Leadville National Fish Hatchery, I noted that there is a "Highline Trail" that starts near there. Does it deserve to be called Highline Trail? The map suggests that yes, it does, at least for a few miles near the other end. It can be done as a loop with a section of the Continental Divide Trail (and the Colorado Trail) with a road walk along Hagerman Pass to connect. There's also a trail shown on OpenStreetMap along Busk Creek which allows, for only a couple more miles, a loop entirely on trail. That's the option I went for. Disturbingly, even though the trail includes a numeric designation (1509) on OpenStreetMap suggesting its officialness, it does not show on my Forest Service topographic maps. I put it at the start of the day so it and any consequences from it could be dealt with most easily. The first difficulty was just finding it. I used Busk Creek itself as a sign post and parked in the larger turnout just west of it above Turquoise Lake. Then I walked back east to find the trail. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one. A pair of hikers came up the road looking for it too. They promptly vanished as I went back for my forgotten poles. I found a well used trail slightly west of indicated on the map and tried it. It went a little way up the creek and stopped, so I cut east across the forest to find the old road cut the trail follows. It has no sign, but it is marked with orange diamonds for the skiers in winter. It provides a short and easy access to the CDT and I only had to walk around one tent right at the end of a hiker who decided to camp on it.

00: creek rushing under a road
Busk Creek is quite a rush of water and looks like it has washed out the road once in the last decade.

01: old road through trees
Arriving at the old road prism that the trail follows. There is only a little bit of forest debris on the actual trail.

The obvious trail stopped at the CDT. Map suggested I needed to jaunt off to my right, so I did, finding there just a muddy track and the old road prism less obvious, but there was a big orange diamond. The old road track was surprisingly hard to follow at times considering it is through trees. It shouldn't be that hard to follow a wide track of missing trees. Sometimes the orange diamonds did wander off the track. Opinion, as expressed by trail on the ground, tended to be divided about which way to go when it did this. Trail was generally obvious, but somehow vanished entirely for a moment here and there. I just looked further and further through the trees and found it again. Then there was meadow.

02: bright spot of orange on a tree above a muddy track of a trail
Trail tread and orange diamond marking for skiers.

03: meadow opening
Ah, meadow. Views! In spite of the clouds already building, this day was supposed to hold off raining until afternoon, but might get a bit heavy in the middle of the afternoon.

04: green mountain with ligher green top
The gentile side of Galena Mountain from the far side of the meadow.

I couldn't follow the track once I hit the meadow, but travel was easy. I just tried to find trail again at the end of the opening. It wasn't the easiest.

05: like a bright yellow paintbrush, but different
Yellow owlsclover, a cousin of the paintbrush.

I'm not sure I actually found trail after the first meadow. I thought I had after the next couple and was feeling good about it until it ended in rocks. The map said I'd passed where the trail crosses the creek. Oops. I backtracked and tried to follow where the line goes, but that was not a trail. I gave up on trail and just looked for a place where the willows weren't so bad. It exists! There was a very easy approach and egress from the vicinity of the water loving plants and absolutely nothing to help in the crossing. I just had to splash across. I was expecting soggy feet by the end of the day anyway.

06: brushy meadow and bare rocks
A bit of Great Divide off the north end of Mount Massive visible from the meadow around Busk Creek.

07: lazy water
Busk Creek is a lot lazier as it flows through its meadow than it was down by the lake.

I went looking for old road again. I went high to stay out of soggy bits of meadow where streams came down which meant crossing streams of boulders instead. This had some minor challenges. Finally, after not seeing any for a while, I spotted a single orange diamond on a tree below. The ground near it was pretty flat, but when looked at very critically, there was an old wide cut there. It climbs up and was easier to follow on this side of the creek. It must be getting some foot traffic. It doesn't completely avoid soggy spots, but there were obvious trails climbing higher to get around these spots. I even thought I saw a few very recent prints that could have been from the couple that started up a few minutes before me. They made better time through it than I did if those were their prints. I never saw them after the pavement.

09: trail marker again
Found you, trail! There's a marker on the tree on the left.

11: soggy area flowers
Felwort.

13: flat bit of ground and distant bare rocks
Following the trail following the old road up Busk Creek.

14: boulder stream and green valley
Looking across the valley to Busk Creek, the road up the pass, and more from one of those streams of boulders. The road has nice routes through them.

After again not seeing any trail markers for a while, they suddenly started coming fast and furious. Trail turned and probably left the road bed again, although not all the walkers did. (The line on the map didn't cross, but there are hints it is only approximate.) I followed the markers to a latticework bridge with 8x8 supports just slightly shorter than the creek is wide. Water flowed through it, but when I stepped out on the dry edge, it held without even swaying. Then trail got maddening again. There is some old road which maybe it follows and maybe it doesn't. So many markers and yet I still wasn't sure where I was supposed to go. I gave up and climbed to the road above. There is a clear top to it.

16: lattice work bridge
A bridge in a design I've not encountered before nor do I wish to encounter it again.

17: marker and road cut
An extra large orange marker for the obvious top of Busk Creek Trail.

I was ultimately very saddened to see what a state Busk Creek Trail is in because the route was actually very nice. It far exceeded my expectations for a creek side trail with its numerous meadows and views. But good grief, it was a hard three miles to travel it! I continued up the road to the parking lot for the Native Lake Trailhead, the northern terminus of the Highline Trail. This was a lot more promising as it was half full and had extensive signage.

18: good road and rocky peak
Hagerman Pass Road is a good, gravel county road at least as far as the trailhead, possibly to the top of the pass. After that, it is 4x4.

21: information sign
Information signs at the Native Lake Trailhead.

22: post for a wilderness sign
This trail will be easy to follow even if someone has absconded with the Mount Massive Wilderness sign.

Not only is the trail extremely clear and maintained, but one can even see rather clearly the old, steeper route. This trail has had plenty of work put into it. There aren't a lot of views at first as it climbs up toward tree line.

23: fenced tunnel entrance
The exit for the Carlton Tunnel (AKA Ivanhoe Tunnel) brings water from Ivanhoe Lake on the other side of the Great Divide and dumps into Busk Creek. I maybe should have taken the little extra walk to see it closer.

25: rocky opening
The trees thin as the trail climbs.

26: bumble bee landing among the larkspur petals
The larkspur seems all wrong for the bumble bee, but it makes it work.

27: wide expanse
Breaking out of the trees and approaching the Highline Trail high point.

Some days it was already storming by the time I broke out of the trees. The clouds continued to oscillate between heavy and light, but they didn't really look ready to pour. So out I strode on the grand flats below Mount Massive.

28: petals around a hairy circle
Autumn gentian among the meadow plants.

30: rocky line of peaks
Past the high point is a rocky line of Great Divide peaks.

34: pink tufts
The roseroot called queens crown adorns the edges of a pond near the high point.

32: wide valley
Overlooking the Arkansas River valley.

37: city on up the other side of the valley
Looking back to Leadville.

Over the top, I caught the first look at Native Lake below. The trail wasn't rerouted this far in and it has some steep spots.

38: large lake under massive mountain
Native Lake below Mount Massive.

39: large mountain
The namesake of the wilderness, Mount Massive.

40: bright yellow flowers
A bumble bee works around a stonecrop.

41: many colors of spots that are all wildflowers
An extravagance of wildflowers.

42: lake through the trees
Approaching the level of Native Lake.

I took the spur trail down to the lake. It's clearly a common camping area.

43: tall flowers with four petals twisted together
These Rocky Mountain fringed gentians were quite common by the water and a little less further afield.

Heading out, the trail crosses a few creeks as it drops a little before climbing up once more to some more small lakes.

44: thin logs as bridge
What bridging looks like in the wilderness. I do like a nice bridge.

46: blue round
Perry's gentian among many.

The climb is near a steep creek that almost looks like a waterfall from the distance, although it's too hidden in the trees for a good picture. There was actually a camper at the lake at the top. Other well used camp sites could be found on the way down to the CDT, generally near the other little lakes.

48: two rounds of water
A pair of ponds near the second high point of Highline Trail.

49: city blocks
Looking down on Leadville.

From that second high point, it's a descent into the trees.

50: big mountain
There goes that big mountain.

51: yellow flowers
A small pond covered in western yellow pond lilies.

52: towering clouds
Expecting to start getting soggy about this time, but the weather was kindly uncooperative with that.

53: clear water
A clear pond along the way down.

54: sign among trees at a crossroad
Descending on the junction with the CDT.

The sign at the junction has had an addition under "Highline Trail" that "this is not Mount Massive Trail". No kidding. I'm sure there's a route, but the trail is a few miles south. I feel like it's far enough away you shouldn't be mixing them up. Have there been problems? It's even well labeled and matches the labels on the map. I headed north on the CDT, which is marked by blue diamonds for the skiers. There's a few more trails it crosses that come up from the fish hatchery and none of them need distinguished from the Mount Massive Trail.

55: bridge
There's much nicer bridges on the CDT.

58: lots of yellowing grass
Kearney Park, where one of the hatchery trails comes up.

60: tall trees
Trail through the trees.

61: big rain shadow
It's raining somewhere. I did eventually get a couple drops, but that was it.

There was no nice wilderness sign to mark my exit from Mount Massive Wilderness, either. There was an explicit reminder to the mountain bikes that it's not okay to continue on the trail. There was also a tire mark that came right up to that sign. It looks like the bikes like to come up and descend on a utility road associated with the power lines one crosses under. A little further, there's even a public road. Then there's a lot of downhill to get back to the edge of Turquoise Lake.

64: rocky mountain
Galena Mountain through the trees.

65: molted bird
Another dusky grouse gets annoyed with my approach.

On the way past the road, I detoured a short way to find a benchmark. I found a rock spray painted "B.M." but still couldn't locate the mark. I continued down the last of the long hill and the short bit of old road on the better used part of Busk Creek Trail to the car. It really was obvious you were in the right place at the bottom even if it wasn't signed by more than high orange markers. I'm still disappointed at the state of the rest of it. It's an important part of this complete trail loop.

*photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 18 Oct 2022


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