SNOWSHOEING JENNY CREEK TRAIL
On Saturday, I did a short day hike up Jenny Creek Trail. I only had about four and a half hours, so I snowshoed in a couple of hours and turned around. You can start the hike either from just outside the Eldora Mountain Resort gate or from the Nordic Center at Eldora. The Eldora Nordic Center is located on the east side of the Ho Hum (bunny slope) run. The trail begins by climbing up through the trees to emerge at the east end of the Ho Hum run. You then hike around the top side of the Little Hawk chair lift area and head back into the trees on the other side. There is a very short, steep hill here and then the trail drops into a gulch. The trail climbs back up the other side and takes a left turn.
I met a couple of cross-country skiers here and they agreed to take my picture next to the trail sign. From here the trail drops again toward a small meadow, then on a nice steady decline down toward the creek.
The trail follows the north side of the creek. For a short distance the path was very narrow, right next to the creek. It was just wide enough for a pair of nordic skis and was a little tricky to navigate on snowshoes. On the way back, I saw an alternate path that crossed the creek and then back again, that was much easier. At around 2.7 miles you encounter the fork that heads up the the Guinn Mountain Spur Trail and around 3.1 miles there is another trail junction. It looked to me like this is where most people turned around. I continued to climb for about another mile plus. I didn't quite make it to Yankee Doodle Lake, but I was out of time, so I turned around and headed back.
The trail is extremely well marked and well traveled. I met a dozen or so people on the lower part of the trail, but no one on the upper part. About two thirds of the folks I shared the trial with were cross-country skiers, the rest were snowshoeing. There are a few spots that offer nice vistas of the surrounding peaks, but most of the trail is dense lodgepole forest.
If you are like me, and looking for more human-powered outdoor adventure, you should check it out!
