After my hike yesterday, I fell asleep pretty early in the evening. This morning I awoke at the crack of dawn, packed up camp and made it to the Moose Meadows Trailhead around 6 am. I would be hiking through Hermit Park and into Roosevelt National Forest to check out the northern section of the Homestead Meadows.
I hit the trail and headed through the edge of a meadow over to a ridge. Just like yesterday there were lots of blooming wildflowers to admire.
There was also a nice view of nearby Kruger Rock which Sierra and I had hiked last summer.
Once I reached the ridge, views opened up to the high peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Soon, I reached the boundary of Roosevelt National Forest.
Much of the trail in the forest followed two track roads. There were still plenty of blooming wildflowers.
There were also scattered views of the higher mountains to the west.
Soon, I reached a spur road/trail that led about 3/4 mile to my first homestead, the impressive Irvin Homestead. On the way I passed through a meadow where a pair of mountain bluebirds perched and flew.
Shortly after leaving the bluebirds behind I found the first homestead ruins of the hike.
Nearby was what I believe was the main homestead, now slowly decaying.
I explored the area a bit and observed an old bath house with a unique spring fed water system.
There were also some old hunter shacks.
I made my way down to the sawmill, but the ruins weren't really all that impressive.
From the Irvin Homestead I returned to the main trail and made my way further south to the Griffith Homestead. The remains of the Griffith Homestead were in pretty poor condition.
I didn't spend too much time here, opting to continue further south to the Walker Homestead. I would guess that the Walker Homestead is the most visited of the homesteads in the area, as it lies along the Lion Gulch Trail. Again, there's not much left of the Walker Homestead.
From the Walker Homestead I started to make my way back north again. However, I would take a slightly different route back to the trailhead by taking a spur trail to the Brown Homestead. There are the remains of a cabin, slowly decaying back to nature at the Brown Homestead.
I didn't linger too long here, opting instead to start making my way back to the car. One interesting aspect of the Homestead Meadows area is that they have very recently been doing some fuels thinning operations in the area. In fact, I could hear distant chainsaws running, so I think the operations may still be ongoing. There are piles of slash everywhere!
I assume that they will burn these piles once snow is on the ground.
The hike back to the car went fairly quickly. I stopped at high rock outcrop with nice mountain views for a snack break.
Before I knew it, I was back to the meadow at the start of the hike with another great view of Kruger Rock.
With the hike complete I went into Estes Park to get a beer at Rock Cut Brewery before the drive back home.
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