Encampment: discovering the river

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest

(light blue line, map link)

DAY 1 | DAY 2

Okay, so somebody in Saratoga saying they want to do the Encampment River Trail probably isn't the best reason to go and do it, but I only had to go across the road for it so it sufficed. Since the Colorado side of this trail was such a mess, I decided to squeeze everything into the 33L pack instead of the 63L pack. Hey, it saves another pound. It's a tight squeeze, so I went with cold soak meals, saving a little more weight. I packed for an overnight with the goal laid back goal of just seeing how far I got. Since I was doing all this packing in the morning, the start was a little late.

00: information sign and trail — The Commissary Park Trailhead has parking, information signs, and a lot of open space.

01: wide, shallow river in a wide, less shallow valley — The Encampment River has grown by both the East Fork and West Forks joining.

02: wide, glacial valley — Wandering along in wide, glacial valley.

I followed along trails near the river, but it turns out I was off trail. The official one stays up a little higher. This meant finding a few extra trees to step over on the way to the wilderness.

05: once painted blue sign — Entereing Encampment River Wilderness.

The canyon walls were closing in around me as I wondered why I was bothering to hike a bit more of the same old river. It turns out there's more to "the river" than just the identity of the mass of water rolling down the middle. It quickly isn't the same old river.

06: tall rocks — Finding cliffs along the canyon.

There's a bridge I was hoping really exists, and it does. Just before it, there was a surprise junction, or at least a sign for South Hog Park Creek. You'll have to study the map on the sign at the trailhead to figure out where it goes because there's certainly not a lot of actual trail.

08: easy crossing — Nice bridge to get across the water.

Across the bridge, I finally noticed the canyon had lost its wide glacial character. The river had to work at this canyon itself.

09: cliffs with mushroom tops — Some mushroom topped cliffs on the far side of the river.

10: peek at the water through the trees — Looking down the river through the trees.

12: river valley — Watching the water flow beside the trail.

There's a few trees down, but it's not bad. There's never any question where the trail is once it gets into the wilderness. I could watch the water roll and wiggle and do what it does instead of paying attention to trail.

13: flat water and easy trail — Sliding down the trail with the river.

14: rock centered in the water — A big rock is dropped in from time to time.

15: small drop off — The smallest waterfall across the river.

16: loose rocks rising to a dome — The cliffs on this side of the river.

There's a random sign to point out Miller Creek on the far side of the river. If there's a trail that goes with this one, I have no idea what map you need to find to figure out where it goes. There's certainly no tread along what is a rather steep and long drop among trees to the river.

18: orange pods — Seed pods of ash add a little color.

19: higher above the river — The trail rises and falls in relation to the river.

20: red and white berries in a field of green — Baneberries in red and white.

21: pom-poms on a vine — Clematis puts out some fun pom-poms.

Camps can be found about 4 miles in and get more common after 6 miles. However, if you want to try to get away from the water and the trail like you're supposed to in a wilderness, that's hard.

22: fairly flat water through trees — A bit of calmer water on the river.

23: tributary water under trees — Box Canyon, one of a few tributaries along the way.

fire ring in flat: — One large camp between the river and the trail.

25: long red flower — The scarlet gilia still has some bright flowers.

The trail climbs up high over a particularly narrow portion of the canyon. I listened with suspicion for the hidden waterfall, but there may not be one. It's still a piece of canyon lost to view.

27: canyon without river visible — High in the narrow canyon.

29: roaring water — The river returns with a roar.

30: water pouring over rocks — A look back upstream.

32: pink stem hanging with white bells — Woodland pinedrops, a parasitic flower.

33: round of rock — Cliffs and rubble on the far side of the river.

35: yellow flowers against brown water — Bright asters start showing up.

34: more canyon and cliffs — Getting some interesting rocks.

I had had one big clump of four trees to get over and then more frequent step overs for a while when I came to a log looking freshly half cleared. After that, there were signs of horses, and I knew the trail was likely going to be pretty clear.

36: light and dark — Shadows getting long on the river.

39: rocky river in shadow — And deeper shadows.

40: flowers and a spider — Big flower cinquefoil with an unnoticed flower crab spider.

A regular mound of light rocks marks arriving at a mine. The map marks a tunnel, but there's only a bit of light rail track sticking out of the hill to mark that. There's also a collapsing cabin and, down the hill to the north, a larger one tucked a little further into the trees. In between these, I spotted a bear, but it was running off quickly and I only got a blurry picture of green.

43: stacked logs — The remains of a cabin beside the mine.

44: a couple walls — Even less remains of a cabin a short way north.

Then I passed by a couple rather well used camps. One was actually on the rock side of the trail rather than the river side. I decided it could be acceptable before moving on and right out the far end of the wilderness.

45: fire ring and spaces — A camp that isn't on the edge of the river.

46: nice wilderness sign — Slipping right out the far end of the Encampment River wilderness.

Past the wilderness boundary, the trail winds through Purgatory Gulch, which has a connector trail. (It definitely gets used.) There's another information sign with map there. Past that, I found myself overlooking Water Valley Ranch, which appears to be a private campground. People were hanging in hammocks and music filtered up from a couple different places.

49: valley upstream with some tents — Looking back to the wilderness, which has a few tent cabins within it.

50: camp stuff on both sides of the river — A campground on a forest inholding.

It's probably about half a mile to pass the camp and it was 15 minutes to when I wanted to finish the day, so I decided I'd gotten as far as I was going to get. I turned around and headed back to that maybe sort of legal campsite. I hadn't heard any music when I was there. It's not perfect, but there's even a low number of standing dead trees. I settled down to some supper that had been soaking 2 hours and then tucked in by the fire ring where some stars might be visible.

continue to the next day ⇒

*photo album*

©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 9 Nov 2022