Corona Trail

The Corona Trail runs 6.0 miles from Rollins (Corona) Pass to Devils Thumb Park—a grand downhill hike if you arrange transportation at both trailheads. The Rollins Pass Road follows part of the tortuous grade of a railroad between Rollinsville and Middle Park. At 11,671 feet the now-crumbled construction town of Corona was the highest railway station in the world in 1901. In 1927 Moffat Tunnel replaced the rails over the pass. East of Rollins Pass the road is closed. From the west the Rollins Pass Road leaves US 40 opposite Winter Park ski area. Ascent of the 14-mile rough road to the pass takes an hour.

To reach the Devils Thumb Park Trailhead, turn east from US 40 onto CR 8 on the north side of Fraser. Drive 7.8 miles and turn right onto a spur road. Drive 0.3 mile along the spur to park at a dam on Cabin Creek. Cross the creek above the dam, and hike a few yards through the woods before turning left on a four-wheel-drive road that reaches Devils Thumb Park after about 0.5 mile.

Finding your way through the maze of beaver-made swamps in the park is interesting. Binoculars help to spot blazes on trees marking the south end of the High Lonesome Trail to the left across the park (see Caribou Pass Trail). A direct tramp to this point will be wet; wend through the woods along the meadow’s edge until you strike the trail. To find the Corona Trail, wander toward a barely visible rock “thumb” on the skyline in Devils Thumb Pass (to the right as you enter the meadow from the four-wheel-drive road). Beaver ponds cause detours from the trail, which becomes clear and dry along Cabin Creek beyond Devils Thumb Park.

Traveling from the south end of the trail at Rollins Pass, hike straight uphill (north) to the wilderness boundary. The Corona Trail climbs past a steep descent to King Lake (see Trails from Hessie in the preceding chapter). Avoid a precipitous snowfield east of the pass. A slip and uncontrolled slide to the rocks below have caused at least one serious injury. Soon the Corona Trail reaches a less-steep grade and meanders across lovely tundra meadows just below the Continental Divide. To view lakes perched below highly glaciated cliffs on the eastern flank of the Divide, hikers have to detour up to the ridgeline. If you do this, tread gently on the tundra. The view of Devils Thumb and Jasper Lakes when the trail reaches Devils Thumb Pass (3.5 miles from Rollins Pass) is as good as any you receive by detouring.

The thumb is curiously inconspicuous from the pass because the spire blends with cliffs to the north. The path that crosses Devils Thumb Pass is also inconspicuous but, like the thumb, becomes more obvious below the pass, either to the east (see Fourth of July Trailhead) or to the west on the Corona Trail. Subalpine gardens decorate the trail with myriad colors below willow thickets at tree line as you descend very steeply to the west. The way becomes less steep among lodgepole pine and beaver ponds at a crossing of Cabin Creek. Here the Corona Trail bends left (south) and continues for less than 1.0 mile to Devils Thumb Park. From the Cabin Creek crossing, faint paths penetrate the tangled valley to the north, where the creek flows from the flanks of Mount Neva.