Dallas Trail at West Dallas Creek Road

The West Dallas Creek Road provides an access to the Uncompahgre National Forest on the north side of the Mount Sneffels Wilderness area, near Ridgway in southwest Colorado. The access road is a south turn off of Colorado Route 62 about 17 miles east of the junction of Colorado Routes 62 and 145 and 5 or 6 miles west of Ridgway.

 It is about 6.2 miles along the West Dallas Creek Road to the Forest Boundary. I parked at the boundary as the road gets rougher and has several large mud holes beyond the boundary. It is about 1 mile of walking to the point where the Dallas Trail crosses the Forest Road 850.

The Dallas Trail runs east and west for about 8 miles, with this access point being at about the center. There is a meadow with a primitive camping area in the vicinity of the Dallas Trail trailheads.

I followed the Dallas Trail west. The first segment climbs through Aspen and Spruce Fir forest. There is a crossing of the West Fork of Dallas Creek just before this trailhead. It took me about 0:25 minutes of walking on Road 850 to actually arrive at the trail. It appears that the Dallas Trail leading east is popular with mountain bikers.

After about 0.5 miles the trail arrives as a meadow area and crosses a small creek. The best views of the nearby mountains are along the ascending trail across the meadow.

The east end of this range of peaks includes Wolcott Mountain at 13,041 feet. The whole ridge appears to be near or above 13,000 feet.

The highest peak in this group is Mears Peak at 13,496 feet. The beginning elevation at the Road 850 trail at the forest boundary is at about 8800 feet and the actual trail head is about 9200 feet. These mountain views are from about 9500 feet.

After the meadow, the trail re-enters forest and continues west for about 1 mile before there is a view point to the north. The knobby mountain is South Baldy at 9829 feet. There are many peaks visible in the distant north. The West Dallas Creek Road is visible in this view.

I turned around at this view point. My total hike was for 3:40 hours for about 7 miles. It was a 75 F degree early September day and I carried and drank 3 liters of water. There were several horse riders and bow elk hunters in the area, and I saw 1 mountain biker.