« Fire on Stags Leap Trail | Main | Steamboat Springs and back »
September 25, 2020
Ute Creek and Cascade Creek
Today, I decided to go scout out some local trails I used to ride back in the day. Ute Creek and Cascade Creek intersect with Squaw Pass at mile markers 5 and 6, roughly. So, if you leave Idaho Springs heading south on Squaw Pass Road, you'll hit Ute Creek at mile market 5 and Cascade Creek at mile marker 6.
Both of these are dirt roads, but somehow, over the last 20 years, they'd sort of merged together in my mind. The distinction is that Cascade Creek has a shooting range a short distance in.
Ute Creek
If you go south out of Idaho Springs, at about mile market 5, you turn right off of the paved road and head west up Ute Creek (County Road 118). There is no shooting range on Ute Creek that I'm aware of. If you go up the dirt road about 2.3 miles, you'll see the rock painted with directions to Lamartine (turn right to go uphill to Lamartine on County Road 712.2A).
Cascade Creek:
So, if you go south out of Idaho Springs, at about mile market 6, you turn right off of the paved road and head west up Cascade Creek (County Road 116). About .3 miles up the dirt road is a shooting range, with a turnout for parking. If you continue up Cascade Creek (County Road 116), at about 1 mile, the dirt road splits, and makes a sharp cutback to the right. This is Forest Service Road 710.1C. (If you keep going up the left fork, it dead ends into private property.)
Here is a better map that shows Ute Creek and Cascade Creek.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd570785.pdf
I'd like to save a local copy of it because I don't trust that the trails won't just disappear one day, but I can't figure out how to save a local copy. Perfect.
In any event, it looks like I would be OK to go up Cascade Creek (County Road 116), park the Tahoe at the Cascade Creek shooting range, unload the ATV, and head up County Road 116 on it about 1 mile, and when the dirt road splits, make a sharp cutback to the right on Forest Service Road 710.1C. Then, it looks like this road will connect me with Ute Creek (County Road 118).
Then, I turn left on CR 118, and head up until I see the painted rock that says LAMARTINE. Here, I'll turn to the right, and go up hill to Lamartine. At that point, I should reach the T-intersection, where I'll turn left, and see if I can make it to the top of Saxon Mountain.
https://www.4x4explore.com/rds/cnty_rds/clear_crk_118_ute_crk_map.jpg
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 25, 2020 at 8:50 PM
Comments
"I'd like to save a local copy of it because I don't trust that the trails won't just disappear one day, but I can't figure out how to save a local copy. Perfect."
Right-click on the URL
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd570785.pdf
and select "Save link as" (or "Save file as", depending on your web browser) from the context menu.
It's a 2 MB PDF file called fseprd570785.pdf
Posted by: linkonymous on December 31, 2020 at 4:47 PM