About four and a half miles up the Avalanche Creek trail is Duley Park, an open expanse that looks like a great place to build your dream home. For day-hikers, this is a great spot to enjoy lunch and take photos. Backpackers could make camp in the pines near the creek. On the other side of the clearing the trail continues its gentle climb toward Avalanche Lake - the last mile and a half of which is rather steep. There's also a junction with a trail that goes over a pass into Lead King Basin.
I often hike Avalanche Creek early in the season because of its low elevation and southern exposure. September is a nice time too, as the golden fields compliment the blue skies and puffy white clouds. In a couple of weeks, the aspens that cover the northern slopes of the valley will be ablaze in color, and I may return to photograph them.
The Avalanche Creek trailhead is in the campground at the end of the USFS road that turns east from Highway 133 about ten miles south of Carbondale, Colorado.
