Type: Trail, Loop
Difficulty: 7 / 10
Altitude: 8,980 ft
Elev. Gain/Loss: 3,140 ft / 3,140 ft
Dog Friendly: Yes, with leash
Jog-Stroller Friendly: No
Filed Under: Hiking, Running
This is a very strenuous (usually 2-day backpack) hike, but a fantastically beautiful run for those with great endurance. Since Corona (Rawlins) Pass is below one of the busiest air routes in the area, there undoubtedly will be many planes to witness your climbing feat.
From parking at the road junction noted in the directions below, head W and down towards the ghost town of Hessie. After only a few (20?) yards, turn right onto the road hiking bypass which takes trail and suspended board walkways to the townsite for a quarter mile (note where you come out of the woods for your return), and then continue down the road to the creek and end of the road. With a 4x4, this is the start of the loop.
From here continue to the west on foot along the old jeep road, crossing a bridge over North Fork Creek. Continue climbing, and at 1.38 miles from the initial bridge over North Fork (~1.9 miles in) turn right on the cutoff trail to Jasper Lake (immediately before the second, larger, vehicle-capable wooden bridge). Follow this for 4 miles to Jasper Lake through moderately steep forest trail and wonderfully flat meadows, with awesome views of the mountain you are to run around on the SW. Continue west on to Devil's Thumb Lake (.8 mile). From here, continue to follow the trail as it goes west climbing up steeply to the Divide, but take the obvious cutoff trail to the left instead of heading for the lowest point, Devil's Thumb Pass (usually covered in snow and steep scree) at the tarn in the meadows beyond Devil's Thumb Lake, reaching the Divide at 6.78 miles.
Continue south on the Divide for about 2 miles, watching for Corona (Rawlins) Pass Road. If you're running cross-country right on the Divide, look downhill to the W - there are huge cairns marking a decent runnable trail a hundred feet lower than your position that makes the run much more pleasant. As soon as you can see the drivable road on the top of the pass, begin looking for the trail heading northeast (at 8.71 miles) down into the valley of King Lake. Bypass the lake to the SE and continue to the trailhead on fun, easy terrain.
Most of the run is in wilderness, so leashes are required for pets.
To reach the trailhead, drive W up Boulder Canyon to Nederland; take Highway 7 (the Peak to Peak Highway) south out of town for about a half mile and turn right (W) on the signed Hwy119 to the Eldora Ski Resort. Drive 1.5 miles and keep to the right at the turnoff to the ski area. Continue through the town of Eldora and onto the dirt road. At the 4th of July Road, find parking; you can shorten the run about a half mile each direction by parking at Hessie, but the road is 4x4 swampy, and a stream runs the road course. The run directions posted here have you park at the road junction where more cars and parking will be found with the extra mile of easy warm-up/cool-down.
Posted by: tradkelly and last modified on Feb 02, 2006 by thoos
Comments
sean said ...
On many of the older maps and USGS topos the route is shown as going straight over the pass at Devil's Thumb. This trail does not exist anymore. Instead, as tradkelly suggested take the obvious trail to the southwest and climb over the Divide there. It is about a half mile shorter than the original route.
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