Hollowell Park Trails

Hollowell Park Trailhead is reached by a short road that leaves Bear Lake Road 3.5 miles from Beaver Meadows. Turn right (west) and drive a few hundred yards to a parking area. From there a broad, clear trail runs up Mill Creek Valley for 1.6 miles to Mill Creek Basin.

The most notable features of this easy, pleasant walk probably are the stands of aspens and recent beaver workings along Mill Creek. The area was used for timber cutting and sawing in the 1880s, and the aspens and lodgepole pines may be a result of that clearing operation. These are the trees that begin to grow in places cleared by fire or lumbering.

Additionally, Mill Creek Basin is an excellent place to look for hawks. The broad, bushy flats of Hollowell Park provide the birds with good rodent hunting. The aspens and cliffs along Mill Creek offer well-watered nesting sites. Hence this relatively small area gives hawks the essentials needed by all wildlife: food, water, and shelter.

From Mill Creek Basin a trail leads left (south) up the side of Bierstadt Moraine to Bierstadt Lake, 1.0 mile away. Most hikers reach Bierstadt Lake from Bierstadt Lake Trailhead or Bear Lake because those trails are more scenic (see Bierstadt Lake Trail in this chapter and Flattop Mountain Trail System in the Bear Lake Trailhead chapter).

A right (north) turn in Mill Creek Basin takes you over the ridge between well-named Steep Mountain and Mount Wuh. The trail is a 1.5-mile link with the trails west of Moraine Park, especially the ones to Cub Lake. The trail is more easily walked from south to north than north to south, but it is not hiked much because there are easier and more interesting ways to Cub Lake (see Cub Lake Trail in the Moraine Park chapter).