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Trail Suggestion:
Mesa
Cortina Trail
The
Trail of the Week from
THE NEW SUMMIT HIKER is Mesa Cortina, mostly
tree-sheltered, except for two beautiful view meadows. Since
it never goes above timberline, it provides reduced (but not
total) lightning exposure. It offers a moderate half-day walk
to gushing South Willow Creek, its destination.
THE
NEW SUMMIT HIKER is available at book, sporting
goods and grocery stores in Summit County and The Tattered
Cover in Denver. Or call the publisher at 970 468 6273.
38
MESA CORTINA
Time: 3 1/2-4 hours
Distance: 2.6 miles
Elevation gain: 380 feet
High point: 9,600 feet
Rating: Easy-moderate
Usually open: June-Sept.
Topo: USGS Dillon 1970, rev. 1987
A fun place for kids, a
refreshing place for friends to stroll, a nice place for a
picnic, the Mesa Cortina Trail is pleasant and relaxing. While
the up-and-down forest path has a stretch rising 400 feet in
0.7 miles, it generally offers an easy walk and a delightful
ski tour.
Drive
Colorado 9 north from I-70 Silverthorne exit 205 to the
Wildernest Road at the 7-11 store corner across from Wendy's.
The trailhead is in Mesa Cortina, 1.6 miles. Turn left and
proceed to the fork. Turn right, then immediately left onto
Royal Buffalo Drive (No. 1240). Drive 1.0 miles to Lakeview
Drive (No. 1245) and turn right. Proceed to a fork with Aspen
Drive. Go left on Aspen, up and around a short distance to the
trailhead pull-off.
The
trail begins near private homes in Mesa Cortina, where
the big Royal Red Bird and Royal Buffalo placer mining claims,
each near 60 acres, once dominated the area. The path winds
through aspen forest to two sagebrush-and-grass meadows with
views of the Blue River Valley and Silverthorne, Ptarmigan
Mountain and Lake Dillon, dotted white with sailboats in
summer. On several moms-and-kids hikes here, we have watched
bounding deer, captured baby frogs in the ponds below the
trail and picnicked in the summer meadow. Children also enjoy
learning about the aspen forest by touching the tree's
elephant-hide bark, watching its leaves "quake" in
the breeze, smelling the damp, musty scent of a dense aspen
stand and understanding the aspen community's interlocking
root system, connected beneath the soil. In autumn, look for
the aspen wood's palette of color from sunny-yellow and gold
to salmon and cerise. These colors vary from year to year,
depending on moisture, sunshine and soil factors. Children can
hunt for "horsey trees" in the aspen forest. These
bent aspen, almost horizontal, bounce like buckin' broncos
when kids pretend to ride them.
Wild iris in June, then
harebell, mariposa lily, columbine, cinquefoil, lupine and
wild rose bloom on the Mesa Cortina Trail.
The path enters the Gore
Range Wilderness at the edge of a lodgepole forest and climbs
on switchbacks under dense tree cover. At 2.1 miles the trail
merges with an early-day road rising from the old Emore Ranch,
a pioneer family's homestead now developed as the Ruby Ranch.
Another half mile brings you to South Willow Creek, a good
destination for a relaxed hike. Signs here give mileages for
points on the Gore Range Trail. South Willow, one of three
rushing creeks that drain the Red Peak area, begins behind
12,777-foot Buffalo Mountain, below its steep west drop-off.
The creek tumbles down between Buffalo and 13,189-foot Red
Peak, sometimes cascading in waterfalls (see hike No. 39).
For topographic map and
photos of this trail, turn to page 91 in the 2002 edition of
The New Summit Hiker.
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