Colorado's Big Drops

[RiverWrangler]

Has anybody ever run or thought of going into Forest Canyon? ToddG maybe? I've hiked in there with very low flows and there are some BIG drops in there. Very manky and wood filled (hence the "forest" canyon title) but there maybe some runnable drops and with some discreet wood relocations it could turn into quite an adventure.

Evan

[steven]

where is forest canyon?

[Hartje]

Forest Canyon is a unique place. There are no trails in Forest Canyon and the park service discourages people from entering it. I hiked in from the BOTTOM and saw some majestic boulder cascades with some serious vertical. I guess my rantings of this place were inspiring enough to other boaters who did the first descent less than a week later, which my hat goes off to - no matter what the outcome. Forest Canyon is wild and scary and it required, I imagine, a serious commitment to exploratory paddling to shoulder your boat and walk 2,000 feet straight down from the high alpine environs of Trail Ridge Road into an unknown, innaccessible canyon.

During my solo hike into this canyon was the first time my neck hair stood on end from a feeling that I was being stalked. I never saw anything, and it was probably nothing, but I was a long way back in there and suddenly wanted out. Remember, there are no rednecks firing off guns in the Park to keep the wildlife running scared from humans and this was not long after a boy had been dragged off and eaten by a mountain lion near the west entrance. This is a great thing, though, that a place such as this can exist so close to Denver.

With all this exciting talk of big, manky Colorado drops I wish I knew how to post a picture because I found some high water shots of Alberta Falls on Glacier Creek that reveal its potential as a big, manky Colorado drop.

[ebaker]

Hartje - To upload a picture to one of the Buzz galleries, you need to:

1 - Mouse-over the Photo Galleries link in the top navigation menu and click on the gallery you would like to upload to.

2 - When the gallery loads, you will see a graphic button in the upper left hand corner of the screen that says "Upload Pic".

3 - Then it's all laid out for you on the next screen. You will need to browse for your picture from your machine. Basically, the Buzz makes a copy of your image.

Hope that helps 'cause I really want to see it!

[Hartje]

Thanks - I had no idea it was that easy to upload photos. I put three pix up taken at peak melt last year.

[blutzski]

Originally Posted by RiverWrangler

These are the drops I was referring to in the post above. The top drop looks to be around thirty feet and is directly under I-70. This falls drops directly into a stomping, narrow cascade, rages around a hard right turn and then drops of another 30-40 footer. Evan

These are some fun drops if you get them at the right level. The first one under I-70 isn't runnable. It lands in about 2 feet of water with no chance for a boof. The next three are good to go. Unfortunately, that makes the put-in the scariest part of the whole run. We had to anchor our boats on a 45 degree slope 8 feet above the river, climb into the boat, have someone tie our rescue vest quick release to the anchor and release the boat, wait till that person could run down to the first drop to watch for any carange, pull the rip cord, drop 8 feet into the creek and go off the first 30 footer 2 seconds later. The run lasts about 20 seconds but is a rush. from the bottom of the last drop you can hike out or bump and grind down to east vail.

[ToddG]

re forest canyon:

on a "hot tip" from one mr. shawn hartje ... beavers, myself & talkalottapoo celebrated 4th of july in there couple years back. it's an amazing place w/ tons of wildlife & no human traffic ever ... it's got some good big drops, some fun bouldery stuff, & plenty of unrunnable stuff ... it's got enough deadfall to supply a papermill for the next decade & a rediculous walk in. bears too.

it's not worth it. trust me on this one. ((lake creek is swell and it's roadside.))

tg

[badkins]

I went m-biking on Sunday and saw a sweet tea-cup style bedrock cascade called Horsetooth Falls, near Horsetooth Reservoir. It looked like it dropped at least 100 foot over 6 or 7 distinct drops. I don't think it runs except in big rainstorms tho...and access would be a bitch. If I go back this weekend I'll post pics...

[JCKeck1]

No one ever wants to say anything about stupid falls - why is that.....? I watched Valhalla tonight - are those the Yule drops you're talking about Kyle? If so, I agree that you should definitely eat your initial words about it. Maybe boats easier than it looks would be a better description because that looks pretty scary.

[Cutch]

Yeah, Valhalla has lots of Yule. Yule isn't for most, but for very solid boaters that are willing to suffer the consequences of a mistake, it has the goods. At least relating to runnable more-than-a-few times big drops in CO. The season is fairly long for it too, and it doesn't take much water to run it so you can go in there when it is mostly rocky instead of pushy.

Stupid falls looks worse in scouts to me than any of Yule. I haven't seen it with enough water to ever run though, so that could be why.

I'll owe you a beer for my comment Joe. 2.5 weeks until my cast comes off!