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Start: Goose Greek Trailhead (#612) just west of Mutakat Road / Park County Road 211

Distance: 9.2 miles out and back

Hiking time: 6 to 8 hours

Difficulty: Moderate

Elevation gain: 900 feet

Trail surface: Singletrack dirt trail

Seasons: Year-round. Trail is snowy and icy in winter. The access road to the trailhead may be impassable in winter.

Schedule: Open daily

Other trail users: Equestrians, backpackers. No mountain bikes or motorized vehicles allowed.

Canine compatibility: Dogs are allowed off-leash.

Land status: Public land in Lost Creek Wilderness Area, Pike National Forest

Fees and permits: A free permit for each group is at the trailhead and must be filled out and deposited in a steel box. No fees are required.

Map: USGS McCurdy Mountain

Trail contact: South Platte Ranger District, Pike National Forest, 19316 Goddard Ranch Ct., Morrison, CO 80465; (303) 275-5610; www.fs.usda.gov

Finding the trailhead: Drive west on US 24 from Colorado Springs through Woodland Park and Divide to Lake George. Continue west from Lake George on US 24 for 1.2 miles and turn right (north) on paved Park County Road 77. Follow CR 77 for 7 miles and turn right (north) on FR 211. Follow dirt FR 211 for 11 miles to FR 558. Turn left (west) and drive 1.9 miles to the Goose Creek Trailhead and a large parking area (GPS: 39.173117, -105.375202).

The Hike

The popular and wildly scenic Goose Creek Trail travels west up a gorgeous mountain valley into the heart of the Lost Creek Wilderness Area from its eastern trailhead for 9.4 miles to its northern trailhead in Wigwam Park. This hike, 4.6 miles one-way, is half of the trail’s total distance, making it a great day-hiking excursion from Colorado Springs. The trail is often busy, especially on weekends, with hikers and backpackers, so come during the week for more solitude, quiet, and inspiration.

The 119,790-acre Lost Creek Wilderness Area protects most of the 25-mile-long Tarryall Range, a swath of wooded mountains west of Colorado Springs. Only a couple of mountains in the Tarryalls break the above-timberline elevation mark—12,432-foot Bison Peak, the range high point, and 12,164-foot McCurdy Mountain. The magic of the Tarryall Range and the wilderness range, however, is not in majestic snowcapped peaks but in bold outcroppings of pink Pikes Peak granite. The range is a metropolis of architectural forms—castles, spires, spikes, domes, minarets, mosques, house-size boulders, and cliff-lined corridors.

The Lost Creek Wilderness Area, an enclave of deafening silence an hour west of the bustle of Colorado Springs, is named for Lost Creek, one of Colorado’s most unusual water courses. Lost Creek, originating on the west side of the Tarryalls, twists through wide willow-filled valleys and down rocky canyons and in at least nine places disappears underground or becomes “lost” beneath huge jumbles of fallen boulders. After its final disappearance, a half-mile forested stretch that this hike crosses to a viewpoint, Lost Creek emerges from the boulder sink and becomes Goose Creek.

The ancient Pikes Peak granite, a rough, coarse-grained granite, was deposited over a billion years ago in a huge batholith beneath the earth’s crust. The molten rock slowly solidified and cooled underground. Later this bedrock was uplifted by the Ancestral Rocky Mountains and today’s Rocky Mountains, and then ensuing eons of erosion stripped away surface layers, exposing the granite core. Weathering and erosion, including frost-wedging and flowing water, chiseled and sculpted the granite, leaving today’s fanciful wonderland of rock forms and shapes.

Begin the hike at the 8,220-foot Goose Creek Trailhead a hundred yards southwest of the parking lot on the west side of the dead-end access road. Before starting the hike, someone from your hiking party must fill out a wilderness permit at a register box at the trailhead. Deposit the lower portion of the permit in a metal box and keep the other half in your possession while in Lost Creek Wilderness Area. The free permit allows the national forest to keep an accurate count of wilderness users.

Just past the permit station is a sign marking the wilderness boundary as well as a 1979 plaque designating Lost Creek Scenic Area, an area within the wilderness, as a prestigious National Natural Landmark. A two-panel interpretative sign has an area map, rules and regulations, safety info, what to bring on your hike, and the basic Leave No Trace ethic.

The singletrack trail (Trail #612) descends from the wilderness boundary, heading southwest down a mountain slope covered with dead tree snags. The area at the trailhead and to the south and southwest up Hankins Gulch was decimated by the Hayman Fire in 2002. The hillside is slowly regenerating with shrubs and wildflowers filling across the slope. Dead snag trees, still black from the fire, gauntly stand tall, although many have snapped off in high winds. Beware of toppling snags if you are hiking in the burn area when it’s windy.

After descending for a quarter mile, the trail crosses Hankins Creek on a slippery log. Continue a few feet to a trail junction. Go right on the signed Goose Creek Trail. A left turn goes up Hankins Pass Trail to Hankins Pass in the south part of the wilderness area. The trail heads north above the creek and in half a mile reaches the edge between the burn area and the forest. Enter the pine and fir forest and turn left on the trail at Goose Creek. At 0.7 mile the trail crosses to the north bank of the creek on a sturdy steel bridge with plank flooring and turns west.

The next 0.4 mile of trail threads through a mixed conifer forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and Engelmann spruce beside Goose Creek. In spring the creek is swollen with snowmelt, but usually it’s a pleasant tumbling stream; trout swim in its deep hole. Eventually the valley widens and the creek meanders among boulders and pools in still beaver ponds lined with willows. Granite slabs and faces stair-step up a couple unnamed mountains that tower to the south.

After 1.3 miles the trail leaves the creek and begins climbing steep slopes above Goose Creek. The next 3.5-mile trail segment gently climbs for a couple miles to 8,700 feet before dipping and rolling through a series of dry shallow valleys that drain south into Goose Creek. The initial hill is steep and rutted in occasional places before traversing across mountain slopes.

At about 2 miles look up left through a gap in the trees toward a big sweeping slab with a thin pinnacle called the Organ Pipe beside it. On the right side of the slab and pinnacle at 8,960 feet is one of the Tarryalls’ most unusual rock formations: Harmonica Arch (GPS: 39.19100, -105.39483). One of the longest unsupported granite arches in the United States, Harmonica Arch is 85 feet long, 30 feet high, 18 feet wide, and 15 feet thick. The arch is reached from the trailhead by a 4.8-mile round-trip hike that gains a net 740 feet. The trail to it leaves the bottom of the valley where the Goose Creek Trail begins going uphill.

Continue west on the wide, well-used trail along the north side of the valley. Occasional overlooks allow good views up the valley toward the heart of the wilderness area. The trail descends hills, crosses shallow valleys, and climbs back over ridges.

After 3.9 miles the trail reaches a junction in the bottom of a shallow valley. A wooden sign designating the Goose Creek Trail also points left to a spur trail that leads to “Historic Buildings.” Go left down this rocky path for 0.1 mile to a collection of dilapidated buildings alongside a meadow and the junction with the Shafthouse Trail, which you will take shortly.

These ramshackle buildings were built in the 1890s to house workers for the Antero and Lost Creek Reservoir Company, which was attempting between 1891 and 1910 to build a dam at the boulder jumble just to the south of here. The largest was a two-story bunkhouse with plank floors and a stone fireplace on the first floor. The walls were made of big logs, hewn to a square shape, with the gaps between logs chinked with mortar. The back of the house was apparently a kitchen and dining room for feeding the hungry employees. Next door is another, smaller log cabin, and across the trail on the east side of the meadow are the remains of other cabins. Nearby is the gravesite of a 1930s prospector named Palmer, his grave outlined with rough chunks of white quartz.

The last leg of the hike goes 0.7 mile from the historic buildings to the shafthouse site and on through boulders to a spectacular overlook on top of giant boulders. From the signed trail junction at the north side of the bunkhouse, go west on the trail marked “Shafthouse.”

The singletrack trail goes west, crosses a trickling creek, then bends southeast and traverses across a gravelly hillside to a high point below a granite dome. Descend the trail through giant boulders to the bottom of the valley, which at this point is the top of a massive jumble of boulders covered with soil, gravel, trees, and grass. Lost Creek tumbles through secret rock passages over 100 feet below the surface here.

The trail heads west here, 0.6 mile from the buildings, and reaches the site of the old shafthouse. A rusted piece of machinery—an old steam engine—sits here on a gravel pad below a slabby cliff. This is the site of a cable pulley used to raise and lower tools, supplies, workers, and waste tailings from a shaft that was dug here to the creek far below the ground surface. The workers housed in the buildings were hired to drill a shaft through the bedrock to Lost Creek. The idea then was to pump the underground void full of concrete to dam the creek and form a proposed Lost Park Reservoir in the gorgeous valley just upstream. Technology in 1900, however, was not up to the task and the project failed by 1910. Just imagine the work that it took, though, just to haul all the bits of the steam engine back to this remote spot.

Beyond the shafthouse the trail winds through boulders and then passes across a quiet meadow surrounded by towering cliffs and domes. Continue into a catacomb of giant boulders and either scoot down a big log in a narrow corridor on the left or squeeze through a slot into another narrow corridor on the right. Both passageways lead west for a couple hundred feet to the hike’s end at 4.6 miles and a dramatic overlook perched on the edge of a cliff. Be careful scrambling onto the rounded viewpoint above the cliff since there are deep drops in wide cracks as well as a precipitous cliff to the west. This is not a good spot for unsupervised children or those with an aversion to heights. Be prepared for some route-finding dilemmas and possible backtracking to find the best way to the overlook.

The scenic view is simply spectacular. Lost Creek twists across the valley floor, meandering between banks clotted with dense willows. Steep mountain slopes blanketed with fir and spruce climb south above the creek. Immense granite domes, abrupt cliffs, compact outcrops, and boulder piles cover the mountainsides and line the valley’s edge. This hidden valley, not seen from the final trail section, is a fitting end to one of the best and wildest hikes in Pikes Peak country. It’s a mysterious place that doesn’t readily give up its secrets except to those willing to walk into the wilderness.

After savoring the view and enjoying your packed lunch, retrace your steps for 0.8 mile back through the boulder field to the shafthouse ruin and on to the cabins and trail junction. Go right on Goose Creek Trail and hike 3.8 miles back to the trailhead and your car. Most of the trail is downhill so the hiking goes quickly. There are few key junctions on the way, so stick to the well-worn path and you’ll be back in a couple of hours.

0.0	Begin at the Goose Creek Trailhead west of the parking area (GPS: 39.172640, -105.376266).
0.2	Descend through a burn area and cross a bridge over Hankins Creek to a junction with Hankins Pass Trail. Go right on the west side of the creek (GPS: 39.171997, -105.379996).
0.5	Reach edge of forest after burn in lower Hankins Gulch.
0.7	Cross Goose Creek on a bridge to the north bank and go west (GPS: 39.175296, -105.381742).
1.3	Reach meadows along the creek and start going uphill above the creek GPS: 39.181905, -105.389631.
3.9	Junction of the Goose Creek Trail and the side trail (GPS: 39.208469, -105.397790) to the historic buildings and overlook. Go left down the valley to the buildings. When you reach the historic buildings, go right toward the overlook (GPS: 39.207586, -105.397718) or straight to the buildings. If you continue down a trail from the buildings to Goose Creek and then walk upstream a few hundred feet, you can see where Lost Creek emerges from the boulder sink and becomes Goose Creek.
4.5	Reach the old shafthouse (GPS: 39.207310, -105.402288). Continue through a meadow and a boulder field.
4.6	Overlook (GPS: 39.208953, -105.403264) of Lost Creek and valley.
5.4	Return to Goose Creek Trail. Go right (east) on the main trail.
9.2	End the hike at the trailhead. The parking lot is to your left down the access road.