Welcome to the Colorado backcountry

The vast acreage of wilderness and backcountry beauty in Colorado make it one of the more popular locations for camping, backpacking, and day-hiking.

In addition to a eight National Parks and Monuments, Colorado boasts an equal number of Wilderness Areas, millions of acres of National Forest and BLM land, and over three dozen state parks.

From mountains to deserts, and grasslands to canyons, one could spend a lifetime hiking the trails of Colorado and not cover all of them.

Avalanche Creek 2011

Thank goodness the trail stays north of the water, as it's running very high and fast this year.

Plenty of wildflowers abound, especially shooting stars.




The trailhead is at the end of the Avalanche Creek Road, on the east side of the USFS campground.  The road joins Highway 133 about ten miles south of Carbondale.