Rather than driving to the Oak Creek Trailhead, we hiked up from our hotel, so that added about 45 minutes to our hike. We left Ouray at 6:45 AM, and reached the Oakcreek Trailhead at 7:30 AM. I was glad we didn't try driving up
to the trailhead - the road was not in bad shape, but looked pretty steep for a rental sedan. The dinosaur tracks were a delight! I am so glad that the proprietor of the China Clipper told us about them last night. Since it was early morning, the sun rays were low, and that provided some contrast to enhance the tracks. But what
really helped was the fact it had rained the night before, so each print was filled with water, whereas the surrounding rock had already dried. The prints really stood out. There are quite a number of tracks there. I could not tell which direction the stegosaurus was walking, I didn't see any
toe or claw marks. No sign of a trail dragging behind either. While hiking Twin Peaks trail, we met Karla, who was participating in a fundraising event called the Limitless Vertical Challenge. Fund raisers had a month to hike as many vertical feet as possible. Karla said she was at least 10,000' ahead of
the nearest competitor. Her goal for the day was to hike to Twin Peaks three times! I was impressed. Karla said she picked Twin Peaks because it was the steepest trail she could find in the area, it gave her the most vertical feet per mile. I believe her. We left the dinosaur tracks at 10 AM and reached the top of Twin Peaks at 11:40 AM. The last 50' or so of Twin Peaks requires that you pull yourself up over some rocks to reach the summit. We left our backs at the base of the scramble, but
I pulled out some snacks to enjoy at the top. Unfortunately, the plastic bag was loose, and my apple escaped. And what an escape it was! It was actually funny to watch the apple bounding down the steep slope, seemingly bouncing higher each time it rebounded off of the mountainside, until finally
the apple disappeared way down the mountain. Hopefully a bear or raccoon appreciated a nice treat. At the top of Sister Peak, we met Michelle from Nashville, who was on a two week trip thru the west. From Ouray, she was planning to hit Rocky Mtn National Park, Yellowstone, the Tetons and Glacier. That was quite the itinerary. We had just spent
an entire week in Ouray alone. We visited Ed and Suz at their KOA campground that evening. They had spent another day exploring old mine sites, and now their RAV4 was loaded with rocks bearing gold. The China Clipper was a very nice place to spend an evening. It was a step up from the River's Edge Lodge. It was a nice reward for us after a week of hiking. The next day we drove to Grand Junction and flew home (we passed a horrific wreck on US-50
as we drove north - it looked like one vehicle had attempted an ill-considered left turn across the north bound lanes and there had a been a huge collision. Many cars had stopped already. As we continued north, just about every emergency vehicle that Grand Junction
possesses came speeding down the south bound lanes. I hope everyone survived that disaster. I copied the map and trail profile from the Twin Peaks hiking description on the All Trails website. To reach the
dinosaur tracks, you have to walk about a quarter mile down the Silvershield trail.
Short Videos
Video from viewpoint
Video along the dinosaur tracks
Panning video from the summit of Twin Peaks
Panorama Photos
Photos from the Twin Peaks Trail
