We had never before traveled to the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. In fact, up until the day of the hike, we had never even intended to travel to the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness. After planning a hike to a “Buffalo Peak” on the east side of the South Park Basin in Colorado though, we accidentally found ourselves with a fully written plan to hike around the “Buffalo Peaks Loop” on the west side of the South Park Basin instead. That was what we got for not zooming out more on the map.

Upon realizing our mistake, and noticing that the hike we had planned was in the same general area as our initial goal, we decided to go ahead and travel to Buffalo Peaks. It was early as ever when we left Denver, though that didn’t stop us from hitting some horrible summer traffic on highway 285. It began to lighten up past Fairplay, and went to nil after we exited onto the dirt road that led into the Buffalo Peaks Wilderness Area. The sun had only just crested the mountains when we pulled up to the trailhead.

The morning air was cool, though we knew that the day was set to bring high temperatures. A crystal blue sky and an eventual lack of either cloud or tree cover would intensify that, in addition to making the photography conditions more challenging for Skyler. Still, the hike started in pleasant enough conditions. Altitude gain was gradual, and the trail took us through pine forest alongside the idyllic Rich Creek.

The trail crossed over the creek a couple of times and kept us close to the water. As the evergreens thinned out and the ground leveled out, the creek side became crowded with willows. Prime moose habitat, though we hoped we wouldn’t run into one up close.

Near a small patch of aspen we found a large part of the trail to be barricaded by fallen trees. After working our way around the blockage, we were suddenly in a whole new environment, a wide high-altitude meadow. The ground through this meadow was mostly flat. Rich Creek, flowing rapidly in the earlier parts of the hike, instead collected into a series of subsequent ponds dotting the open landscape here.

After several more creek crossings in the meadows, some of which just involved finding the narrowest section of water and jumping, the trail veered off from the water and took us back into the trees. And into switchbacks.

Followed by fallen trees.

Followed by small snowfields.

We finally reached a point where we were regularly checking a map and comparing it to our local surroundings. The trail we were on, which circled around the Buffalo Peaks, had numerous offshoots. We had to avoid taking any wrong turns on the forks, lest we end up in Buena Vista. It was only after a fair amount of nail biting and orienteering that we found ourselves back beside another waterway, Rough And Tumbling Creek, and comfortably on our way.

We hadn’t realized that our final leg of the hike wouldn’t actually follow this new creek all the way back. After a bit more time going back and forth between evergreens and open meadow, the trail suddenly veered us over into a vast and long-dead aspen grove. It also veered upwards, steering us towards a high ridge. It seemed very far away in the now blazing sunlight.

The last two miles were painful. Sun burnt, sweaty, and soaked from a final set of crossings over Rough And Tumbling Creek, we just sort of dragged ourselves into the parking area. By GPS we had gone about 12 miles. It felt longer than that. The solitude of the trail had been nice (we passed maybe three other hikers over the entire journey), though the lack of wildlife had been a bit disappointing (tons of elk droppings, but not an actual elk anywhere in sight). That the trail was a loop was a plus, as loops aren’t often on our list. Still, this wasn’t a trail we were likely to return to anytime soon. We were ready for some cold drinks.

A note: the hike detailed above happened in June of 2021. Any of the conditions noted in this post should not be considered accurate anymore (for all two of you who consult this blog for conditions). We will be posting a couple of more hikes from our backlog in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for some more photography from Skyler!

As always, thank you for reading!

~Sky & Ty