Deer Creek Canyon (Littleton, CO) – trailmap
Trails traveled: Plymouth Creek Trail, Plymouth Mountain Trail, Scenic View Trail, Difficulty: Black (Hard)
Out-and-back Trail, 2.4 miles one-way, 4.8 miles round-trip
Time: 2 hrs
Weather: 72 °F, Overcast, Cloudy

Hike Recap:

• Epic Views
• Summit
• Muddy
• Snowy
• Cooled Off
• Trees
• Stream
• Wind
• Herd of Deer
• Straight Up

This was a hard hike. The trail leads you straight up the mountain to the summit. The elevation gain is over 1,000ft from the trailhead to the summit. There was a stream next to the trail most of the way up. Pine trees lined the path throughout the hike.

This time of year there was a lot of water and snow on the trail. I was glad I brought my waterproof hiking boots. Even though it was a “warmer” day for the Spring, the tree cover kept almost the entire hike shaded, which explains the snow still hanging around.

At the summit there are lots of places to see all the surrounding region. There is a large rock formation you can climb to the top of about halfway down the scenic view trail. Farther down, there are places to sit on rocks and look out at Denver and to see some of the backrange mountains. It was a pretty windy day because a storm is rolling in tomorrow and on top of the mountain the wind was really howling. This made things a little uncomfortable, but there were places to shelter yourself to still enjoy the views.

On the hike down I saw a herd of deer that were just far enough away that none of the pictures I took really came out. They were grazing on the scrub brush and grass about 50 yards off the trail. They did notice me but they weren’t startled nor did they really seem to care.

Even though the hike I did was straight up, there are other trails that are shorter and aren’t such a steep climb. The Meadowlark trail connects with the Plymouth Creek trail to form a 2.6 mile, which is a more moderate hike. While it’s longer in distance, the Meadowlark is a good trail to take to avoid some of the very steep parts at the beginning of Plymouth Creek trail that you can connect up with and keep climbing higher to still see the beautiful views but trade some of the “straight up” sections for a more gradual ascent.

Like my hike on Saturday, this hike was an inspiring one that led me to write out a handful of poems, which I hope to share with all of you over the next few weeks.

– Jason