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Trail Name: Dry Creek Trail
Best Use: Hiking, Trail Running, Birding
Best Time for Use: Year-round use, trail can be muddy after storms and hot during the summer
Difficulty: All users – Advanced beginner to intermediate icon-beginnericon-intermediate
Length: 7.2 miles (11.6 km) as a down and back from a 2WD parking site, 5.8 miles (9.3 km) down and back from a 4WD parking site
Start Elevation: 5,560 ft (1,695m) Maximum Elev Gain and Loss from Start Elev: 160 ft (49 m), – 10 ft (3 m)
Trail Surface and Use: Some cross-country travel on flat to moderate slopes combines with a lightly used, single track trail that has been developed on a long- abandoned 2-track dirt road
Trail Head Access: There are two trailheads: one is suitable for a 2WD auto in all weather, the other, about 0.7 mi (1.1 km) down the trail, is a 4WD site
Trail Head Coordinates: 2WD Site: – 684,040E; 4,241,650N; 4WD Site – 708,740E, 4,229,800N UTM Zone 12 WGS84
Best Feature: Nice hike up a major tributary of the San Miguel River. Can have short sections with water. Excellent look at the inside of the collapsed Dry Creek Anticline (geology).
Cautions: Few. Some cross-country travel is required, so navigation is important, there is a wire fence to cross at about 0.36 mi (580m) from the 4WD trailhead. Cattle can be seasonally present, so be careful around them.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION, GPX VERSION, OR KMZ VERSION OF THE DRY CREEK TRAIL.

  • Dry Creek at the Core of Anticline

Description: The trailhead parking is at two sites depending on the vehicle used. If 2WD is used, then the first 0.7 mi (1.1km) is an unbladed 2-track 4WD road that terminates at the 4WD trailhead. Then cross-country hiking travel is needed for about 0.6 mi (1km) to access a very lightly used single track trail in the bottom of Dry Creek canyon that has been developed on a long-abandoned 2-track dirt road. The trail ascends the creek and crosses in several places. The mapped portion of the trail terminates at old overgrown 1920’s-era exploration oil well site – very interesting. Side trips continuing up the main drainage or up the two drainages that excavate the anticline are worthwhile.