Creeks in Rocky Mountain National Park

[ski_kayak365]

I enjoy the low IV water. Lake Creek, Popo Agie, Vallecito, and big south are all outside of my experience level. Plus I work for the park and spend my evnings hiking around the creeks.

[Hartje]

Anyone who has ever completed the Bear Lake to Grand Lake trail over the divide could not have missed North Inlet creek. The convenient trail follows the creek. This is one of the bigger drainages in the park. You would want to hike in over Flattop Mountain from Bear Lake and camp at the put in or hike upstream to see if you can find a gorge. There are some big falls on the way to Grand Lake I can recall jumping off of, though it's all relative considering I was 12 the last time I did the Bear to Grand trail. Could be a long, woody class IV.

There's other stuff back there. For East Inlet hike up from west portal, there are some falls, this creek drains the west slope of the park's most southerly 13ers, Mt. Alice and Mt Isolation, down to the boundary with the Indian Peaks.

I would be very curious to hear reports of any boaters getting on Glacier with some water. Despite TG's claims of not worth running I beg to differ. Having been down the whole thing years ago I can still remember the potential in there with some more water.

Anyone ever been into Forest Canyon?

[blutzski]

ToddG - Do you know what the level on Popo Agie is currently and how long it will be running at a good level. I did it a couple years ago and definitely want to get back there. Sweet creek.

[yetigonecrazy]

the access to forest canyon looks like it would be a bitch....there doesnt look like theres any trails, and you couldnt put in at the headwaters where the road is cuz there would be zero flow...youd have to drop in down the damn mtnside to get to anything....if anyone has done that, thats intense

[deforrest]

Yo, Sean I scoped most of that stuff too and the problem is the wood in the creek is illegal to clean so it makes the cleaning even harder than normal. Which we know isn't very easy even when you can stand there with 4 guys and 2 chainsaws and go to town. That summer when we ran Glacier another crew asked me to go up to Forrest canyon with them. They ended up going way up trailridge road and hiking down thousands of feet from the road to get to the river. They said there was absolutley no trail and it really sucked. They said the river was ok (upper Big T) and there was one or two pretty cool drops like 10' or so but the epic was probably not worth the outcome. Hope all is going well, lets hook up and paddle some more.

Forrest

[Dave Frank]

Forrest welcome to the Buzz.

[Hartje]

yeah best not to go rambling about the park with a chainsaw! Was hoping maybe big water did some of the work since 2000. The cascades that are two or three miles above the moraine park trail head at the exit of Forest Canyon are an impressive sight. A blown line would very likely result floating off a spout into a cave. not for kayaks.