The Herman Gulch Trail does not mince words. The highway exit only exists for trail access after a nice mountain drive winding with Clear Creek past Idaho Springs.
After a brief turn from the parking lot, the trail hits a junction and heads uphill quickly. It winds just enough that it does not reveal how steep it plans to rise, just letting hikers know it won’t flatten out for a while. People headed down the trail said they saw a moose to the left. We saw no evidence of moose when heading up or coming back down, as my eyes were glued to the creek in all instances. But the creek was lush, and even wildlife that large could have hidden easily.
The melting season never fully ended here, as chunks of snow and ice not big enough to count as glaciers receded in the summer heat. Little streams came down from the rocks to reach the creek. In some places the trail required navigating some pretty gnarled roots and hoping a foot didn’t get hooked.
The roundtrip runs 7 miles and the elevation changes 1,781 feet so it’s a good starter for a hike that crests above the treeline. I had hopes of a 14'er this year and no one should start with a 14'er, not in my physical shape. First comes the treeline, then the 13'er, the maybe the 14'er.
After a few level places, everything turned steep again – severely steep. Switchbacks people hikers a few hundred feet above where they previously stood in just a few minutes. The last incline as the trail moved above the treeline was the steepest. Then it all levelled out as the trail reached the tundra.
On this little plateau everything was green and blossoming, taking advantage of the short combination of spring and summer that barely lasts two months. The creek we followed the entire way up the gulch originated from Herman Lake, a tarn fed by waterfall streams and a huge fan of ice along one of its shores.
The creek waters moved swiftly as they left the lake. Not being sure-footed, I hesitated to cross the creek. I would not have gotten sweep far away, but a bad step might have pushed me to a flat spot 20 feet below.
People gathered on patches of flat rock, and we found our own near the lake. We found our rock with a litle looking. I could not sit down for fear of cramping.
But the setting was serene even as the occasional dog plunged into the lake. The lake was filled with a glacier at one point, the small ice field on one shore was too thin to qualify any longer. Pettingell Peak rose abruptly above the tarn, its peak another 1,000 feet up.
I hate to call any descent easy, but after some grudging steps on the way up, the return path was easier on the body. The descent was steep but bearable, not too strenuous on anything but the toes, which received their standard beating.
A little taste of wildlife popped from the boulders. A yellow-bellied marmot observed from a boulder until one of the dogs on the trail took special interest.
People continued to head up even as the clear morning ceded to a cloudy afternoon.
Herman Gulch feeds into Clear Creek not far from the lot.
Arriving at 7:30 had been fortuitous. When I wanted to hike and reach a full trailhead, I move on. People at Herman Gulch didn’t consider alternatives. Cars lined out of the lot, then onto the highway ramps in both directions. For all the stay-at-home orders, what did I spy between the trailhead lot and a few miles of interstate but license plates from 30-plus other states.
But I forget the cars, letting my mind stick along Herman Creek and Herman Lake a little longer. The ice fed the lake, the lake fed the creek and the waters tumbled all the way down to the highway.
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