June 14, 2015
We have two hiking trails on the refuge, Sparrow Trail and Odell Creek Trail. Sparrow trail is a good place to go look for moose and elk, but is a short walk through a flat meadow. Odell Creek takes you off the refuge and eventually connects you up to the Continental Divide Trail, after you connect to a couple of other trails. It's supposed to be only five miles up to the lake, but I still haven't proved that.
The trail certainly doesn't look like much at the beginning. In fact, I never actually found the trail at first, since I thought the sign was pointing to the trail. and it starts against the fence to private land. But as you go further along, the trail becomes very easy to see.
The trail has a lot of ups and downs, but not a lot of total elevation change.
It starts in a meadow, passes through an aspen grove and soon is in the conifers.
The trail crosses several little creeks and eventually crosses Odell Creek on the way to Odell Lake. The smallest streams have bridges over them, but the bigger crossings require rock hopping, wading, log walking.
This is my second attempt at this hike. I'm going to get all the way to Odell Lake one of these days.
We have two hiking trails on the refuge, Sparrow Trail and Odell Creek Trail. Sparrow trail is a good place to go look for moose and elk, but is a short walk through a flat meadow. Odell Creek takes you off the refuge and eventually connects you up to the Continental Divide Trail, after you connect to a couple of other trails. It's supposed to be only five miles up to the lake, but I still haven't proved that.
The trail certainly doesn't look like much at the beginning. In fact, I never actually found the trail at first, since I thought the sign was pointing to the trail. and it starts against the fence to private land. But as you go further along, the trail becomes very easy to see.
The trail has a lot of ups and downs, but not a lot of total elevation change.
It starts in a meadow, passes through an aspen grove and soon is in the conifers.
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| Wild Iris |
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| Aspen grove near beginning of trail |
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| The bark of one aspen looked like lips |
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| Uinta chipmunk eating a dandelion - the only wild mammal I saw |
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| Most of the trail is through conifers |
The trail crosses several little creeks and eventually crosses Odell Creek on the way to Odell Lake. The smallest streams have bridges over them, but the bigger crossings require rock hopping, wading, log walking.
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| One of the smaller streams |
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| I don't know this flower |
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| This was the first Stellar's jay I've seen around here |
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| This late-blooming balsamroot was blooming in the middle of the path |
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| I love the look of this fly but don't know either it or the flower |
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| This was the end of the line for me since I didn't want to wade and wasn't up to walking the logs |
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| Looking downstream from trail crossing |
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| Paintbrush was blooming at the big creek crossing area |
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| I think this is one of the bluets |
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| There will be wild strawberries along the trail soon |
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| These yellow flowers formed ground-covers in many places |
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| This is the bud of the ground cover flowers - one of those DYC's |
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| Not sure what this is but loved the look of it |
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| Forget-me-nots |
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| Sticky geraniums are among my favorite flowers |
This is my second attempt at this hike. I'm going to get all the way to Odell Lake one of these days.
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