Peru Creek PLUS 2.5

Peru Creek

Warden Gulch

Chihuahua Gulch

Cinnamon Gulch

Here is a quote from the White River National Forest concerning the Peru Creek Road:

This road offers amazing scenery, gorgeous hiking trails and access to other spur roads, all without being very difficult for most SUVs to access. It is a fairly mellow road with plenty of room to pass other vehicles. Expect to see passenger cars on this road as well, though an SUV with good clearance is recommended. You will have opportunities to explore other drainages off the main Peru Creek Road including Warden Gulch, Chihuahua Gulch, and Cinnamon Gulch. Eventually you will come to a parking area and gate at the Shoe Basin Mine. Beyond this point the road is closed to motorized access, but you can continue on by hiking, mountain biking or horseback. The hike to Horseshoe Basin at the top of the drainage follows an old 4WD road and the scenery is outstanding.


Peru Creek PLUS 2.5 includes a track for Peru Creek, as well as the 3 gulches mentioned by the Forest Service.  The quote above will serve as a description of the Peru Creek Road.  This photo shows the end of the road.

There is a GPS - gpx track at the bottom of the page.

Upper end Peru Creek

Warden Gulch
This is a Jeep trail through the trees to where it breaks out into a beautiful basin and the Allen-Emory gold mine.  Nice views of the mountains around you, as well as the basin itself.

Warden Gulch basin

View down into Peru Creek

Chihuahua Gulch
This is the trail that gives the 2.5 rating.  It is an enjoyable trail to drive.  Starts out passing an avalanche of large boulders, then crosses the creek.  There are open views along most of the trail, and there are large areas of abandoned beaver ponds.

The trail simply ends and you turn around and come back.  Unless of course you like to hike.

Chihuahua Gulch from Warden Gulch

Beaver ponds

Cinnamon Gulch
This road was closed for construction the day we visited, so the track for this gulch, the two photos and the description are from TrailDamage.

This short spur trail off of the Peru Creek trail offers many old mining structures in a small space, and all of them are fairly easy to access. That makes this a very special trail to Colorado.

You soon come to the first crossroads. If you turn right here you can visit some buildings associated with the Pennsylvania Mill. Here you will find the largest structure, one you can see from the Peru Creek trail.

Visit more mines on your way up the gulch.

After these mines you work your way back through the gulch to the basin at the end where the Silver Spoon Mine is. The trail that went to the mine is no longer available, so you must turn around at the sign that says it's closed.

The scenery at the end is breathtaking and worth the trip even though it ends very soon.

Pennsylvania Mine

Revenue Mountain

Updated 2014.

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