Roaring Creek Trail

The sound of running water finds you before the trail even begins to climb. Roaring Creek spills down out of the high country beside you for nearly its whole length, so from the first rocky switchback to the last quiet meadow you walk to the music of moving water. It starts steep — sharp turns through juniper and sagebrush — then levels onto a bench and settles into an open forest of ponderosa, Douglas-fir, and trembling aspen.

Keep your eyes up: bighorn sheep browse near the trailhead, moose and elk haunt the upper stretches, and the creek still runs with native greenback cutthroat trout. Come in winter and you'll want traction underfoot; come in spring runoff and you'll want to be ready to rock-hop — or wade — an unbridged crossing about three miles up. However you come, come a little thirsty for wildness.

Trail Facts

Getting There

Drive 40.5 miles west on CO-14 from Ted's Place to mile marker 82.1. The parking lot sits on the north (right) side of the highway, 1.5 miles past the Colorado Parks & Wildlife fish hatchery. Restrooms are back at Big Bend Campground, about a mile before the trailhead.

Know Before You Go

• Moose country. Give them a wide berth, especially with a dog along.
• Bikes are welcome; e-bikes are not. Stock riding is difficult — the first 0.7 mile is steep, rocky switchbacks.
• Dogs are fine under voice control at all times.
• Water is easy to come by — the trail hugs Roaring Creek almost the whole way (treat it before you drink).
• No camping or fires within ¼ mile of the trailhead; past that, Leave No Trace (100+ ft from water and trail).
• Winter is doable but the trail holds snow — traction devices for the first 1.25 miles, snowshoes beyond, and it's easy to lose the tread once it's covered.
• The unbridged crossing at 3.06 miles can be a real wade during spring melt.