Dillon Pinnacles Trail

On March 28th, I drove through the Curecanti National Recreation Area on my way to Montrose, Colorado. Curecanti is a series of three reservoirs along US Highway 50 between Gunnison and Montrose.  The nearby national park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, is only partially open to vehicles in the winter months so I was happy to see that Curecanti has some hiking trails - seven to be exact.     The trails are all fairly short - two or three miles. I hiked Dillon Pinnacles, which is located off Highway 50 just before it crosses a bridge.

To get to the start of the Dillon Pinnacles trail, follow the paved road from the parking area; the trail marker is on the right side of the road. The beginning of the trail has great views of the Blue Mesa reservoir, which was completely covered in snow. On this part of the trail, there were no trees and it was a bit windy and cool. The hillsides were covered with sage.

The trail then climbed up through a gully to an intersection. As the sign at the intersection notes, in winter months, you must stay on the trail to protect the big game habitat. The chance of seeing wildlife was one reason I chose this particular trail. There are winter photos of the trail on the Curecanti National Recreation Area page of the SummitPost.org website so I figured the trail would be hike-able in winter. Most of the trail was dry but there were some muddy areas.

Unfortunately my camera did not capture what I saw on the slope very well. Approximately 30 deer gathered, lined up, and began crossing the slope together. At least you can see how camouflaged the deer were in this arid landscape.  

I later watched a few elk run down the hill towards the reservoir. It is hard to see them, but they are standing next to a juniper tree in the background of the photo below.

Along the trail, there are a few signs explaining how the pinnacles were formed millions of years ago and a few benches in case you want to stop and rest. It took me about 40 minutes to hike the 1.8 miles to the top of the trail.