5 or so nights near Denver

Is that the Lake on Black Creek at about 9,350? Or is it the lake a bit east of Dora Lake at about 10,900?


There were some great maps and articles there that I wish I had saved.

We did not drive to the 4wd Brush Creek trailhead--it was only about an extra hour to walk the road, IIRC.

Happy to help. Let me know if you need more info.

BTW, I described that loop counterclockwise--you can do it in the other direction, of course, but the first couple miles of the Deluge Lake trail (if you're climbing from the trailhead) are steep and relentless, so it makes sense to me to descend that stretch rather than ascending it at the very start of your trip.

I did not realize that spur from the Lost Lake trail into the Black drainage got you up so high. 6 miles is not too shabby for getting that far into the Gore Range. That said, I am not sure it's a route i'd want to pack if getting out meant returning via Cataract Creek or some other bushwhack.

A mellower, and scenic alternative in the north Gores might include Eliot Ridge, an above timber flat ridge walk of several miles above upper Cataract Creek, then picking up the Upper Cataract trail and taking it down to the very scenic Surprise Lake, and then back west past Tipperary Lake and on to Eaglesmere and then Mahan Lakes, returning to Eliot Ridge TH via the jeep trail that connects it to the Mahan trailhead.

I've always wanted to do that route, but I would probably have someone drop me off on Elliot ridge and leave my car near lower Cataract Lake.

One could do a side trip to (over) Knee-Knocker pass into the Upper Black Creek drainage form there. It looks like fairly easy travel from the upper Cataract Basin south into the basin under the West face of Powell, which is the headwaters of a tributary of the Piney River. I'll call this West Powell Basin.

I've been to the pass between West Powell Basin and Upper Cataract Basin--it's easy class 2 travel from either side. From West Powell Basin (which is very beautiful--great camps) there is a faint use trail to the east up a very steep scree slope to Knee Knocker saddle (the obvious pass between Peak C and Mt. Powell). The view from the pass is flat-out stunning: it's worth the difficult climb.

From Knee-Knocker, you can drop a bit into the Black Creek side and climb the south face of Powell (class 2), or drop further down Black Creek (easy terrain) to Bubble Lake. BUT, the Black Creek side of Knee-knocker tends to be packed with snow, sometimes all summer, and it was corniced when I visited there in early July 2013. So I'd advise an ice axe, at least until August, if the plan is to descend into Black Creek from Knee-knocker saddle.

The route from knee-knocker to Bubble Lake is easy (once you descend the initial snow slope) and passes through some incredible wildflower fields (they were crazy in bloom in early August 2014).

Mt Powell from camp in West Powell Basin:




Peak C and Knee-Knocker Saddle from W Powell Basin:




Peak C from Knee-Knocker Saddle:




Upper Black Creek drainage from Knee-Knocker Saddle:




W Powell Basin from Knee-Knocker Saddle:

Let me know if you need more info on the route. I know that people do it as a day-hike from the Piney Lake trailhead, but that'd be a killer long day. I'd do it as an overnighter with a camp in what I'm calling W Powell Basin. Thats what my son and I did in 2013 (we actually came from upper Piney LAke where we'd been basecamped three days before that, but same difference). We decided not to summit Powell that day because my son was very uncomfortable with the cornice on the east side of Knee-Knocker saddle. (I wanted to just glissade it, but he's a little more cautious by nature.) But it was definitely just a class 2 walk up (about 1000 vertical feet IIRC) from the east side of Knee-Knocker.

Not the Main Piney Valley, the "high bowl" to the WSW of Mt Powell and Peak C, and directly SSE of the upper Cataract Creek basin.



Not I. It looks like the travel would be easier a bit on the north (Cataract Creek) side than on the ridge top or on the Piney River side. There's a pretty good view of the area in the hang gliding video that I posted above in this thread--that should give a good indication. It looks to me like you'd encounter some very steep scree slopes as you got closer to Powell--you'd probably have to drop into the Cataract basin to avoid them.