Fort Collins - Hewlett Gulch Trail

Fort Collins - Hewlett Gulch Trail

Trailhead

OK, so here goes another journal entry; I hope you like it.  This is the fourth time I have been out to Hewlett Gulch in the last two years, but the first time this year.  The early part of this hike is a great Grandkid hike, so I have brought all of them out at least once.  Today was the first time I have been here in winter.

While there was some snow on the ground, there was not enough for snowshoes, so I left them in the truck and headed out with just my Yaktrax.  The day was beautiful; few clouds, not a whisper of wind, and the temperature was in the high twenties, low thirties.   The trail is pretty much flat for the first three miles to the 'lollipop' loop junction.  It is called a lollipop loop because the track looks like a lollipop.  Once to the junction the trail climbs steeply to the west.  This is the hardest part of the day.  It turns out for at least an eighth of a mile to be slightly less than a 15% grade!  Overall, the climb is closer to 10-12%, but it is only for about 3/4 mile.  Once I reached the top of the climb, I was able to see into the Red Feather Lakes area.

Looking out toward the Red Feather area

When this area was settled, people built a road from the Poudre River to Red Feather Lakes, but that road has been abandoned for ages.

This area was burned in 2012 by the High Park fire, so there is plenty of dead trees through out the hike.  I'm sure it would have been beautiful before the burn.  After I got to the top of the hill and started down, I got a good view of the gulch.  

Hewlett Gulch looking from the North.

At this point I began heading steeply downhill and back to Gordon Creek.  While up on the hill, I had decided to be on the lookout for some small waterfalls and snow.  Maybe I could get a decent picture.  By the way there were 16 unique water crossings on this hike.  Only a few of them were ice bound, most flowing water to navigate and not fall into. 

Small waterfall

Closer look at the ice shelf

Side view

Once back on the flat part of the trail, it was clear sailing to the truck.  All in all a great day.

Overall Track Statistics for Fort Collins - Hewlett Gulch,   1208 data points

 Length 8.224 miles  :  Garmin Length 8.563 miles

 Start Elevation - 5621.88 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 6827.82 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5621.88 feet

 Date of Hike - Jan 13, 2016

 Start Time - 09:29 AM

 End Time - 01:26 PM

 Total Duration -     3:57 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 1755.31 feet

 Total Descent - 1655.84 feet

 Net Ascent - 99.48 feet

 Maximum Grade - 14.99%

 Average Speed -  2.08 mph :  Garmin Average Speed  2.16 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 638.19 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  2.92 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 11.61%