Hiking Bear Creek Falls

Special Thanks: Colorado Travelog #25
Telluride, CO - Wednesday, 6 Jul 2022

Our hike 2.5 miles up to Bear Creek Falls this morning was fairly pleasant. It certainly didn't feel like we'd climbed over 1,000' to nearly 10,000' elevation. As we got within the last 200 meters or so of the falls the trail shrank from a wide fire road down to a single-track footpath winding through the undergrowth. We forged through it and came out on a rocky slope at the foot of the falls.



Here there were a few large rocks to sit on to enjoy the view. The area was somewhat crowded when we arrived, but people were filtering out as the sky increasingly threatened rain. Indeed, shortly after we claimed a nice perch for ourselves it did start to rain!

We stayed through the rain because we were prepared for it. ...Well, Hawk was prepared; I was somewhat prepared. Hawk had brought a rain poncho. I only had a light jacket and a broad brimmed hat. I forgot to pack my rain jacket when we left California days ago. But the light jacket worked well enough today as the rain didn't get particularly heavy.



Why sit atop a rock eating a trail lunch in the rain? We do it because the view, in some ways, gets better. The darker sky really brought out the colors in the cliff next to us. And as the weather shifted from moment to moment we enjoyed many moments of sun-shower: times when the sky overhead was sunny, but rain was still falling on us.



The rain abated after 15-20 minutes. We decided we'd been at the falls long enough, so we began the trek 2.5 miles back down the valley into town. Hawk kept her rain poncho on (as seen in the photo above) but it didn't rain anymore on us.

Update: About 20 minutes after we finished hiking the skies opened up and absolutely poured rain. We timed it just right!